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{
    "id": 331536,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/331536/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 254,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Affey",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 381,
        "legal_name": "Mohammed Abdi Affey",
        "slug": "mohammed-affey"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to support this Bill. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the intention of the Bill is to extend the period within which the Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) should have concluded its report. It would have been quite fair to all of us if the Commission had done its responsibilities within the time given. We know the challenges that the Commission was confronted with at the beginning, but most of us were in great anticipation to conclude the report, table it and go to the elections. For some of us who had truly invested emotionally and believed in the TJRC’s outcome, we find that it is a betrayal of sort that this report will now be discussed at a time when, as the Chief Whip has said, perhaps, when we are more sober. It would have been more useful for us now, so that during the campaigns, no institution of Government or any personality in Government ever again misbehaves using State resources. This is because most of what we are dealing with in the TJRC are atrocities committed by the Government against its citizens who expected respect, trust and support from those Government institutions. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I was on this Floor and with your support and that of other Members of Parliament, we managed to repeal the Indemnity Bill. That Bill was used to destroy the hopes and aspirations of generations of Kenyans who live in six counties. In its own wisdom, Parliament decided that, that Bill was unconstitutional, but the President refused to assent to it. Up to now, that Bill is in limbo. We expected that by now the TJRC to have concluded its report and told us exactly what happened in the counties of Lamu, Wajir, Garissa, Mandera, Marsabit and Moyale between 1963 and 1967. This is because the Bill said that the Commission should tell us what happened from Independence. It is with great pain that those of us who expected the truth to come out--- Today, an extension is being sought and because we are really in need of this report, we will support this extension. But, Mr. Minister, let the truth come out. We want to know who was responsible and why thousands of Kenyans died in Wagalla in Wajir County. We want to know why in 1966 very many young Kenyans were killed in Garissa Primary School and Malkamari in Mandera and in a mosque in Isiolo. An Imam was killed right in a mosque when he was leading a prayer session in Isiolo in 1967/1968. These are the things that we wanted the Commission to tell us. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, on top of that, those counties that we are speaking about have lagged behind in development because we have been criminalized. Today, when a crime is committed in northern Kenya, the whole community suffers for it. It has happened in Samburu and it is happening now in Garissa. It is unfortunate that our military officers got killed in Garissa. It is not something that we support at all. We condemn that incident, but we condemn more when ordinary civilians; children and women live in absolute fear in Garissa today because the military has unleashed their weapons on ordinary citizens who have got nothing do to with the crime committed. The"
}