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{
    "id": 396752,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/396752/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 200,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Therefore, the time has come when we have to recognize these volunteers by giving them a token. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will not agree with those who are saying that we could recruit the wazees from retired people. Village leadership does not require recruitment in terms of education. It is just leadership which just comes from the people. The people themselves know who their leader is, whether elected or not. The people at home know that so-and-so is a leader. So, you cannot go deliberately to look for people to be employed or to be brought in because they have been retired police officers; we are not going to devolve corruption. You cannot just get a retired police officer and make him any kind of an elder in the village. You will be making a terrible mistake. Let that retired police officer or civil servant stay with the people and the people themselves will see if that person is capable of doing a certain job. He may show some the leadership qualities. You cannot hide leadership in any community; it just comes up. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, my advice is that these people should not just be given honorary amounts of money. The Government and the country must decide; these people have got very unique roles to play. Therefore, we should spend about Kshs2 billion or Kshs3 billion a year to comfort these people. I can tell you that the security problem we have will go down by 30 per cent immediately. Because if they know they are respected and trusted for this kind of job, they will do their best. This is because they belong to the village and they will not want their village to be messed up. If these wazees work with the home guards in those districts which have homeguards and the chiefs, I can tell this House that our security will improve very fast. That way, you will really not even need policemen. You can only bring a policeman to arrest somebody, but not to give any information. They will not know any information more than these old people. I have experienced quite a lot with these elders. I have worked with them and I know the chiefs in this country, although that culture is dying--- We need to think whether we would like to let our culture die as we are watching, because today in some constituencies or districts, the elder’s advice is not being entertained because we are killing ourselves in the name of Christianity. I think there is no country without a culture that survives. So, we need to use these wazees to sustain our culture and, also, to be able to the judge of petty family quarrels. It is very important. But these days, people are becoming so mzungunised that when anything happens, they just go to the High Court or to a court of law. These are the wazees who understand and know each and every person in the village. If I am quarrelling with my friend here, they will just say: “You do not belong here” straight away because they belonged there even before us. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I think we have a duty here to decide just to pass this Motion and then keep quiet. I think it is not fair to do so. We need to bring in a Bill to make sure that this issue is put in our Statutes so that the Government can now be held responsible to sustain these old men. These old men will be governed by a certain section of the law. Most particularly, they need to maintain our culture wherever they come from. If they are Kikuyu, Kuria or Teso, they have to maintain their own culture so that we are able to advise our children. But, today, English is a language that can never, ever be used to advise anyone, especially in our traditions. English is a commercial language; in fact, it has gone beyond commercial. 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."
}