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{
    "id": 383759,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/383759/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 154,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "June 20, 2013 SENATE DEBATES 24 Sen. (Dr.) Machage",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, thank you for that protection. I am only seconding the amendment and with good reasons. While a pandora’s box may have been opened, yes, it had to at one point in the history of this country because the truth cannot be concealed always. Historical injustices have to be addressed as they are. We can only talk about them to seek solutions. This is the House of the Senate. We have to appear to protect and defend every Kenyan, whatever their status or source of origin. We have to be seen to be non-partisan in protecting Kenyans in all counties. Let us pick one issue of the Mau Mau. These are people who our former colonizers have seen the need to compensate. You know what the Mau Mau uprising was all about in the early 1950s to the late 1950s. We cannot exclude these people who fought for our Independence, lost their land and limit ourselves to a period that addresses our small communities. We will be making the Mau Mau case with the British totally irrelevant. We have to be seen to say that these people lost their land and that their land was taken by colonial masters. The community that some people may be focusing on suffered a lot; the Kikuyus. The people of Mount Kenya suffered a lot because they were evicted by the colonial masters at that time. We cannot just bury our heads in the sand. Some of the families of these people are still alive. Some of the old men are also still alive. They see their land being cultivated by other masters. We cannot bury our heads in the sand. We must address this issue in totality. It is known, whether we talk about it or not. The people of Baringo have taken their time to go to court over the years to try and regain their land of origin; their home. They won the case and yet the Senate purports to bury its head in the sand and not to address the issue. The truth is that unless land issues are addressed, we will never go anywhere. This also affects the people of Coast Province because of the ten miles coastal strip. We cannot refuse to address that. They were forcefully evicted from those places. Their land was given to the colonial masters at that time who allocated their land to the Zanzibar Government. Now that we have Independence, these people have not been considered and have not been given back their land. They are squatters in their own land. We, from other areas, have occupied that land. That is cultivating anarchy. We must address that as the Senate. We must address it. When hon. Sen. G.G. Kariuki was a Minister in the late 1970s, my own people from Migori were evicted from Trans Mara. We have people now living in marshland. They always pray to God not to send rain when the rest of Kenya is praying for rain because God forbid, when the rains come, they have nowhere to put their heads. Do you want those people to be forgotten? There are IDPs in Trans Nzoia; the Sabaots. If you go and resettle other IDPs in those places without considering the others who were there, will they accept it? So, really, expanding and enlarging this period to start from 1895 is really to address the genesis of the problem. You can only treat a disease if you know the cause. Otherwise, we will operate the tumor out and then after a few years, it grows. We will keep on operating and finally, kill the patient. That is exactly what is going to happen if we do not, as the Senate, look at this issue as a problem that needs to be addressed holistically with wisdom that is expected of this House; of course, while upholding that respect to our country and not punishing other people for injustices that were done by 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."
}