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{
    "id": 383739,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/383739/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 134,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "June 20, 2013 SENATE DEBATES 20 Sen. Ndiema",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, first of all, I want to thank the honourable Senator for Laikipia for moving this very important Motion concerning the citizens of this country who have continued to suffer without a place called home. While supporting the Motion, I would want to propose and move and amendment. I beg to move that the Motion be amended by deleting the words “over the last 20 years” appearing in the first line and substituting thereof the words “since 1895.” And further by deleting the word “current” appearing in the second last line. Madam Temporary Speaker, the history of IDPs in this country is long and it is not restricted to 20 years. It is on record that when the colonialists set foot in Kenya and admired our land, they started scheming how to forcibly remove citizens from their land. Some of those families which were displaced from the colonial times are really the original IDPs, some of whom have never been resettled. Madam Temporary Speaker, this is not only restricted to one area. If you went to the former Coast Province and the Rift Valley, and particularly Trans Nzoia where I come from, the same thing happened. Families were deprived of their land. Some of them were moved to forests and later on, the same forests where they took refuge were gazetted as Government forests or national parks and people have continued to be displaced. Some Kenyans had to seek refuge in foreign lands. We have Kenyans who used to be residents of Trans Nzoia and they were forced by the colonialists to move to Uganda where they have never been accepted as citizens of that country. Some moved to Tanzania and beyond. The Constitution which we overwhelmingly passed took cognisance of the problems of those citizens. The National Land Commission has been given the mandate to look into the past injustices visited on Kenyans. Madam Temporary Speaker, it is not proper for us to ethnicize or personalize issues of land because they are emotive. In the Constitution, we know that a person has a right to own land anywhere in this Republic but what we need is to objectively, in a unified manner, look at the problem of the IDPs right from the beginning. Perhaps that is where we have failed. Now, coming to the recent IDP resettlement programmes, the Government has tried, but I think sometimes the manner in which it has been done has not been well informed. Arising from the conflicts that we had, some IDPs went to camps and some went to be accommodated by relatives, neighbours and so on. There are communities that do not believe in being in camps. This is a category that looks like it was not taken care of and we need to take stock. I thank Sen. G.G. Kariuki for bringing this Motion, but let us revisit and do a proper census of all these IDPs. Madam Temporary Speaker, the Trans Nzoia communities are known to be welcoming. They have welcomed people from other communities to live there, yet they are the ones who suffered most from colonial deprivation of land. We have the original IDPs and the recent ones that also came about because of the recent conflicts. If you go to Kabolet and Teldet camps, there are IDPs. No IDP from Trans Nzoia has been settled yet we have willingly received and settled IDPs from other counties. In a situation like that, how do you expect the residents of those counties to feel? Are we not unnecessarily setting citizens against each other? If there is any land to be shared – the Constitution 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."
}