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{
    "id": 41542,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/41542/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 278,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kioni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 49,
        "legal_name": "Jeremiah Ngayu Kioni",
        "slug": "jeremiah-kioni"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, hon. Khalwale said that we do not need to have one language for us to be able to move. I agree and that is why we need to make sure that if we have to foster economic growth in this country, we need to communicate more. You cannot communicate faster if every other time you need an interpreter because a person comes and wants to insist on speaking in his own mother tongue. If the person is not able to communicate in Kiswahili or English, then perhaps we need an interpreter. We know that there are offices you walk into these days and all that you find are people communicating in their mother tongue. If you are not part of it, then you have to wait on the queue before you are served because they would want to serve those whom they are happy, or are comfortable with, because they want to use their mother tongue more than anything else. However, also this Parliament passed the National Cohesion and Integration Act in 2008. The work of the Commission is to try and foster national unity by getting people to accommodate one another more. We cannot become cohesive if in public places you talk in a language that cannot be understood by others. We passed the National Commission on Human Rights in this House, and it is only fair that we also respect statutes that we have passed in this House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when you want to impart your ideas on others, or if I want to impart my ideas on hon. Duale, and I start doing it in Kikuyu, what is it that I will be doing? Hon. Khalwale said that you do not have to impart ideas on others using Kiswahili or English language. Agreed, Kiswahili and English languages are foreign languages, but we need something that can help us communicate and move on. If we had identified Luhya, for example, then we would be saying using the Luhya language in all our national and public offices; we would all agree to practise this language. It is unfortunate that we are zeroing in on colonial languages, but that is the best that we have."
}