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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I beg to move that the House adjourns pursuant to Standing Order No.23 to discuss the humanitarian crisis brought about by the ravaging famine in many parts of the country. I support the ongoing homegrown initiative by Kenyans for Kenya. First of all, I want to thank you and the House for acknowledging that this Motion is important and timely. We live in a country where majority of our people are living in severe strain. They live in pain and frustration. They live in almost utter hopelessness. The current situation that we face in our country is not acceptable. It is not a situation that we can accept 45 years after Independence. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we cannot be proud of a country where people in part of it have full stomachs for a night, while people in other parts are ending up in graves because of lack of food and water. We had been forewarned of this situation. Our country had been forewarned. Our experts informed our Government over one year ago what lay ahead. The situation we are in today could have been controlled or managed but we have not been able to do so. I have just returned from Wajir County. The situation in almost all the constituencies of Wajir, Garissa and Mandera Counties is deplorable. The people who live in the constituencies of Turkana, East Pokot and West Pokot Counties are a frustrated lot. They are in pain. That is why, as Parliament and as a country, we applaud the home grown initiative known as “Kenyans for Kenya”. This is an important initiative, which shows how Kenyans are thinking outside the box. It shows that we are no longer a country which does not care for her less privileged members of society. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in May this year, Members of Parliament from pastoral areas, under your leadership and the leadership of senior Ministers, held a session with His Excellency the President and the President acknowledged the situation in which Kenyans were. In May, the Government declared drought a national disaster as a result of pressure by Members of Parliament, who felt the pain of their own constituents. However, from May to August, action by the Government has been very slow. Of course, the Government moved in and declared a national disaster. However, somebody who speaks on behalf of the Government and the President, personally made it look like what Kenyans were going through was trivial. He said that Kenyans never died, and that if anybody had died he had died of diseases. To be precise, he said “hunger-related diseases”. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is strange that the officer contradicted the position of the same Government. If there was no problem in this country, the President and the Cabinet would not have declared drought a national disaster. When you declare something a national disaster it means that, truly, there is a disaster, and the disaster has to be confronted. The manner in which the Government Spokesperson spoke on this issue was reflective of a Government which does not care. He was not really a caring Government official. We are pained by his outright denial on national television. I want to applaud the efforts by the Kenya Red Cross Society. The Kenya Red Cross Society has done exceptionally well in making sure that food and the requisite support reaches Kenyans. This House has risen to the occasion by being a caring House, not only by debating this matter but also by contributing money. Every Member of Parliament and member of staff of the National Assembly has shown that they truly care by their gesture, through the contribution that Parliament made. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are requesting that the Government provides immediate financial support to the Kenya Red Cross Society, because it is the Kenya Road Cross Society and the media who have confirmed that people are suffering out there, and that we have actually lost lives. A chief in Turkana County is now being threatened by the Permanent Secretary (PS), Ministry of State for Provincial Administration an Internal Security, and by the local District Commissioner (DC) for exposing the pain of his people and confirming that lives were actually lost to hunger. We saw that chief showing a television journalist fresh graves of Kenyans who died in Turkana. What does he get for it? Instead of getting acknowledgement and promotion for exposing what was happening in his own backyard, he got a threatening letter from the Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security. Relate that to the statements attributed to the Government Spokesperson. This does not project the image of a caring Government; it does not project the image of a Government that is actually concerned. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is so much contradiction in the Government. The President and the Prime Minister have made statements on this matter. I went to Wajir County with the Vice-President and the Minister for Home Affairs to provide support to vulnerable groups there. When we have these leaders speaking in that manner, we have other leaders in the same Government playing a reverse role, by trying to trivialise the situation in which we are. I want to acknowledge, and sincerely thank, our media. It is our media which actually exposed the real situation we were going through. Kenyan journalists travelled thousands of kilometres, at great risk to their lives, in order to expose the pain that Kenyans are going through. The true heroes are those who have exposed what we are going through; those Kenyans who continue to contribute to the Kenya Red Cross Society in support of Kenyans in pain, and that police constable from Wajir South District, who donated his entire salary to the Kenya Red Cross Society in support of this initiative. Those are the true heroes we have, and not Government officials who live in glass houses, and who want to perpetuate self denial. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must, therefore, find long-term measures to mitigate drought, so that we do not have to complain year in, year out. We expected this famine. Last year, we went through this kind of mess. Every year, we approve budgets here for irrigation but there is no monitoring. Even the farmers who have had a bumper harvest of maize in Bura and Hola Irrigation Schemes have nowhere to sell their crop. The Ministry of Agriculture tells us that we have a lot of food in the country but Kenyans are dying of hunger. Foreigners come into this country to visit refugee camps and offer support to those refugees, yet the Kenyans hosting those refugees in Lagdera and parts of Wajir South Districts continue to suffer. We acknowledge the visitors who visit refugee camps and offer support. We thank them for what they do. However, you do not forget your own nationals who host those refugees. This morning, Nation TV aired footage of a village in Lagdera, where people complained that the refugees are getting attention whereas they are ignored. It is very evident that the wife of the Vice-President of the United States of America was in a refugee camp the other day. High level Government officials were in the refugee camp, yet our Government cannot provide food to the residents who host those refugees. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is a shame that every year, we have to request the House to adjourn to discuss this matter. This matter requires aggressive efforts. It is, in fact, criminal, under our current Constitution, for any Kenyan to die of hunger. No Kenyan should suffer or die because our Government is able to provide food. Kenyans pay taxes but there is no co-ordination. I am told that there were complaints in certain Government Departments that we have a problem of co-ordination. The Government was lamenting about co-ordination when it was supposed to co-ordinate these activities. If the Kenya Red Cross Society – a small organisation in terms of stature – can effectively co-ordinate relief efforts, what about the Government, which has the appropriate machinery in place? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government has DCs, PCs, DOs and chiefs on the ground, in addition to PSs and what have you. It is a coalition Government. Everybody is in Government. The Government is bloated enough. Why are they allowing Kenyans to die of hunger? I want to thank hon. Members for their support and request hon. Mutava Musyimi to second this Motion. With those remarks, I beg to move."
}