Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 380671,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/380671/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 217,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "know of. But we lost the struggle and the genuine desire to liberate ourselves! Do we still teach civics in our villages? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this Motion indicates to us that we as a nation have to start putting things right. Japan is a first world country, but even when it comes to the Prime Minister, when they are greeting a young person or any other person, they bow. You are not God that they bow to you but it is discipline and it is cultural. That is a first world country. I went there and I saw it. Everybody was just knocking down the head until I became tired and wondered what I should do next. Even if you go to Uganda, they still do the same. When you are served food by a lady, she kneels and not because she is worshipping you. When the civil society sees this, they think you have made the ladies to worship the man but it is culture. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, during the initiation for young men, a lot of teaching goes on. Today, we take boys to the hospital but we could still do it in such a way that cultural trainings can go on. The doctor can be called and the boy goes through initiation but the usual training goes on. It might not be as extreme as before but we can do it. I come from West Pokot where history is not written in books but in songs. So, today I know the songs that were sung in 1800. When something happens, they put it in form of songs which are transferred from generation to generation. What did we do to the syllabus? I am told that the Ministry of Education, about five years ago, that is, 2003 or 2004, removed music from the syllabus and yet Africans are known to sing naturally. If you tell me to sing for you, I will do it because it just comes naturally. If you want some values to be transferred to our children then put them in a song. During Mzee Kenyatta’s time people used to sing. I would even sing Kikuyu songs because I heard them sing. I can sing Pokot songs also. I even do not know the last time Pokot traditional dancers came to sing during national days to showcase their culture. Not that I want my people to come but why not? We also want to see the same in Isiolo. Music is the library for Africans in terms of their culture but we lost it. We want to move into Mathematics, which is my field of study, but we also need to sing Mathematics. Many years ago it was not easy to get a chief from some clans or some families because people knew many negative things about them. Today education has come and you will find some leaders who have come up because of education. So, they want to be elected because they are educated and also have money. In the process, we elect people who do not resemble where we come from. In the process, we end up transferring cultures that are not fit to our children because they look up to the leader. In West Pokot where I come from, many years ago, it was like law that when a leader speaks, you do as he says. So, when you elect someone who is not behaving as the society does, he will transfer that to the community because they believe that they must listen to their leader. These are some of the virtues and values that we have lost. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this Motion says that we need to go back to the grassroots and talk about it if we want to maintain Kenya’s nationhood as one. We now have 47 counties. These 47 counties should build cultural centres. Just the other day we were a unitary state but we now have 47 counties. If we do not implement this now and remedy the issue of cultural upbringing and retention in the counties, we will lose it. This is the right time where the national government should come up with a policy and link up with county governments so that they can do it. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}