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{
    "id": 396747,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/396747/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 195,
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    "content": "now, the advanced theft that exists was not there. Today we are experiencing very many problems due to population explosion. Population has grown higher and the young people have to find alternative ways to live. Therefore, they resort to crime that we are experiencing today. If we were to address ourselves to the population and its set up, including its composition, like tribe, lifestyles and economic activities, we can get to know the structure of each tribe and how they lived. We can utilize this knowledge and come up with very good rules and laws in this country. This is what we need to digest further and get to know why our culture is having what we call “cultural shocks”. We also need to know why we do not recognise tribes, why we cannot even talk about one country, one nation and one Kenya. This is because we have left individual tribes to be on their own. We have also left the population to grow without caring what happens. We need to go down and look at our cultural problems and assess our cultural traits. This can only be done through wazees, be it women or men. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, wazees were respected everywhere in the community. In Kikuyuland, wazees of those days were held in very high esteem and a lot of respect. You could not even cross the road when an old man was crossing. They had some special trees that they worshipped under, especially when there was a problem of drought, for example. Amazingly, the rains would come. They would even slaughter animals and take the sacrifice to their gods. I do not know what happened today. The gods vanished and also the traditions vanished. We, as a country, are not able to get to the root of the existing problem. Why are we having these problems? We need to find out. When you go to Meru, there is a group called Njuri Ncheke . If a Meru misbehaves, he is called to the traditional court and reprimanded or counseled. This has instilled some discipline among the Meru people. The same thing happens in Maasailand, we also have the Kaya Elders in the defunct coast province and also in Bungoma County, we have people who are known to instill discipline. Recently, there were some cattle thefts and the wazees resolved that the only way to handle the cattle theft is to borrow a witchdoctor from Bungoma. When the witchdoctor came in, the crime fizzled out. Now there is no stealing of cattle anymore because the thieves are aware that there are some powers where if you are found with somebody’s cow, you will eat grass for the rest of your life. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are taking life for granted. This has even become a problem to the Government. The Government is using too much money in combating crime. This Motion is calling upon the Government to come up with a policy to try and recognise traditions in different tribes. That is what we are going for and that is why we are supporting this Motion. If we can recognise these wazees as people who are part of the system of the Government, we will benefit from them and even gain from information transmission from them. They can even be better than the National Intelligence Service (NIS). These wazees know whether there is a visitor in the area and where he or she is coming from and so on. These people have a system of communication that enables them to know who has come and who has gone out. So, if we can recognize that they exist by giving them the token that Sen. (Prof.) Lonyangapuo is proposing, I believe the wazees will work hard and effectively. I have heard from the contributions that this fund is meager, but I can tell you that you can get wonderful results from this. They are not asking for too much and 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."
}