HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 323603,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/323603/?format=api",
"text_counter": 444,
"type": "other",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "10. Hon. Raphael Letimalo, M.P. 11. Hon. Isaac Ruto, M.P. 12. Hon. Mutava Musyimi, M.P. 13. Hon. Fred Kapondi, M.P. 14. Hon. Sofia Noor, M.P. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I will not belabour this Motion. I come before you, so that you allow this committee to be formed so that it goes and interrogates the issues that are contained in the Motion. Allow me to just highlight one or two points. The first one is that the issue of Banita Settlement Scheme is, indeed, to a university student, a study in the culture of discrimination in this country against the poor and voiceless. Banita Settlement Scheme has a history. This was a farm that was once upon a time owned by a white man. Before the white man left, he had been using African black people as hand labourers on his farm. When he left, the same people, whose families had multiplied over the years, then approached the Government, then the Government of President Daniel Moi, and President Moi, in his wisdom, decided that this land be given to the squatters. That was done. Allow me to point out one or two issues; because I will use names of communities, I should not be perceived to be promoting ethnicity. The people who were working on this farm were mainly from the Kalenjin, Luo and Luhya communities. When the land was given, it was understood that it was going to be shared amongst these people. When Mr. Moi exited the Government, the decision to settle was then changed, and for some unknown reasons, Kenyans from communities that were not originally working on this farm, and who were not originally squatters on the farm, ended up being given the land. Also, members of the Kalenjin community had settled on a section of this scheme that was perceived to be fertile. When the Provincial Administration came, it pushed them out and gave that fertile section of the farm to members of a different community and the stand-off began. It has gone on and we have had incidences of violence, tribal clashes, and people have lost their lives until a time came when a court order was issued that no further activities would take place on any of those farms. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, sadly it came to pass that in spite of a court order, elements within the Provincial Administration went on and started giving directives that were aimed at favouring a particular community. Therefore, it would be important that this Select Committee goes on the ground, establishes the facts and reports back to this House. It is a very sad thing that while effecting a court order a District Officer, a young lady, fresh from the university, aged 25 years, and just turning 26 years, a few weeks ago decided to uphold the court order and prevented a particular family from burying a body on that farm. In the process, she received punishment from the District Commissioner (DC) to the extent that she was given a punitive transfer. I want to use this opportunity to thank the then Minister of State for Defence and Acting Minister of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security. When this matter came before this House he took it up and immediately sorted out the mess. Members of the family of this young DO are very grateful to the Minister because he has been able to give her a departmental transfer to save her the trauma that she has been undergoing while working under the brutal DC."
}