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"id": 41488,
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"speaker_name": "Dr. Khalwale",
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"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": "Mr. Mbau is driven, not because of the language spoken, but by the fact that there is tribalism in our offices. If we just pass this Motion without realizing that we are supposed to cure tribalism, we will end up passing a legislation that goes against the new Constitution. This Constitution in Article 7(3) tells us that the Constitution must promote all Kenyan languages, having recognized that English and Kiswahili are official. So, if we pass it, we will be saying that we want to regulate the very promotion of the ethnic languages that we speak in this country. Number two, this Constitution says in Article 11 that the cultures of the Kenyan people will be promoted. The backbone of all the cultures of the world is language. The moment you start regulating the language, it means that you have started acting contrary to Article 11 of the Constitution of Kenya. Before I go on and show Members why we have to rethink about this Motion, may I point out why people have an opportunity to speak a particular language in an office? If you go to the Office of the President, according to the reports of the media, and which we have no reason to doubt, we were told that the highest proportion of people working in the Office of the President are from Central Province; a community where the Head of State comes from. We were told, similarly, that in the Office of the Prime Minister, the highest number of people come from a community from the former Nyanza Province, the community that the current Prime Minister comes from. So, if we, the politicians, are the ones who are making sure that we employ enough people from our tribes to allow them the luxury of speaking in their vernacular language, then we are the problem. The problem is not our language. We want the President, Prime Minister and the politicians in this country to exercise affirmative action when they are giving out opportunities of employment so that, when people are in that office, they find it difficult to talk in their vernacular because they will realize that the next person is not a Luhya or Kamba. Why do you want to criminalize our languages? This House must go out of its way to ensure that we discourage politicians from allowing their institutions to have a tribal face. If we pass this Motion, hon. Mbau, what will we do about Article 27 of the Constitution of Kenya? Hon. Mbau, Article 27(1) tells you that every person is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and benefit of the law. Fine! Suppose this Motion passes and somebody is in an office--- For example, a Luo and quite a big proportion of Luos are not very fluent in Kiswahili. That is a fact! We deny him an opportunity to express himself simply because he is not fluent in Kiswahili. That person will refer to Section 27 and say that you have denied him his Constitutional rights. What will you do about Section 27(4) which says that the State shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against any person on any ground - including very many things among them - including ethnicity? How will you harmonize this law, if we pass it, with Article 27(4)? Hon. Mbau, how will you harmonize this with Article 28 which talks about human dignity? It says that every person has the inherent dignity and the right to have that dignity respected and protected. So, if you harass somebody in an office because you found him speaking in Luhya, surely, you will not be preserving his dignity. The person will have every reason to believe that he should seek redress from the courts. If we pass this law, what will you do with Article 33(1)(a) which says that every person has the freedom of expression which includes: Freedom to seek, receive or impart information or ideas to others? How will you harmonize that law? Finally but not least, what will we do with Article 33(3) of the Constitution which says that, in the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, every person shall respect the rights and reputation of others? How will you do it? All I am saying is that, noble as this Motion is, we must oppose it because it is contrary to those many provisions of the Constitution that I have cited. We should acknowledge that this Motion has come up because of tribalism and, therefore, go out of our way--- I am glad that Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker is one of the well-known debaters in this House and a good lawyer. We challenge good lawyers like you to go out of your way to help non-lawyers like us to come up with legislation that will give effect to this Constitution to the extent that we fight tribalism. We should not fight our culture and our languages. With those few remarks, I oppose."
}