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{
    "id": 356573,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/356573/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 468,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and I have done a lot of investigations in Turkana regarding displacement as a result of insecurity or attacks from the borders. I have researched on the conflict between the community members and the militia in Mount Elgon. I have also looked into the issues of Tana River and Baringo in 2012 and the story is the same all over in the northern frontier districts from 1963 to date. This looks like an area of less interest in this country. It is less considered and there is a perception among the communities living there that the Government does not treat them as equal citizens. The Government has a duty to protect the citizens of this country, including the citizens of the northern frontier districts. The local people are entitled to adequate security. The Government has not treated those communities with the dignity that they deserve. They have been marginalized in terms of development. All the resources meant for development are used - and up to now – to deal with insecurity issues. Sometimes, one feels that the State wants to continue giving excuses in terms of dealing with insecurity issues as part and parcel of the lives of the communities in northern Kenya. This includes Turkana, Wajir, Baringo and all those areas that are occupied by pastoralist communities. If there is bit of killings in some parts of this country, for example, Central Province, Nairobi and Nakuru, there will be serious State attention and resources will be quickly mobilized. It will be taken as a national disaster. But when it happens in northern Kenya, Turkana, Tana River, Mandera and Wajir, it is treated as the tradition of those communities. This country has failed the people of northern districts. It has discriminated against those communities. When incidents of insecurity happen and fights occur in northern Kenya, they are treated as part of the people’s culture. That is not the case. It is the State’s failure. Last week, we heard about Bungoma. Recently, a group of us travelled to Mandera and everywhere in northern Kenya, there are organized militias. If the Government is not ready to protect the lives and properties of the people from those communities, why can it then not legalize militias to protect the people of northern Kenya? We have failed the people of those communities who are citizens of this country and we are not legalizing their militias. We should pay them from the State coffers and say: “Yes, we have failed”. The Government must formally say that because we cannot accept that. We are elected by the communities from northern Kenya and we cannot pretend that there is no problem. There is a huge problem in those areas. The Government must declare insecurity in this country a national disaster. We have totally failed. The President, in his Presidential Address, promised that the Government will protect and safeguard the lives and the property of the people of this country. When will they do it? It is just on the paper. When will they enforce it? Even if you increase resources for the Police Force, the killings will continue. They believe that there is no need of protecting the lives of people in certain areas, for example, in Turkana, Samburu and the Somalis."
}