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{
"id": 442620,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/442620/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
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"speaker": {
"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I stand here to pass my condolences to the family and relatives of Gen. Mulinge. I did not know him personally, but I studied him in geography, history and civics in primary school. What I strongly remember about Gen. Mulinge is his love for the country, particularly his personal sacrifice for the greater good. If there is something that will always be remembered about him, it is the fact that he stood firm in 1982 when the country was facing its greatest challenge in terms of a coup. That is a man who teaches all of us that you do not always have to act for personal interest, but for the greater good of the country. There is something that always pains me; that is history. If you travel to all countries of the world, you will see they have documented their history. About one month ago, I was in China. They have documented their history. If you go to Nanjing, you will find the history about the inversion of the Japanese in China. So, there is a clear history of what happened, how many people died, where did they come from, who helped, what tribunal was formed, who was punished, who was the judge in that tribunal and so forth. Mr. Speaker, sir, in this country, we have left our history to oral literature so that it depends on whether Sen. Musila is able to give a proper account about Gen. Mulinge or something like that. So, the history of this country is not good because we have not documented properly what great men and women have done for this country. The reason we are still divided on tribal, ethnic, and gender grounds is because we have not really found historical facts or situations captured so well that they can teach a child that Tom Mboya, when he was a Member of Parliament in Nairobi was elected by all tribes and acted for the interest of the whole country. What Gen. Mulinge did was to protect the whole nation. Can you imagine if the 1982 coup had succeeded? Perhaps, we could be having a different history. Maybe I would not even be here. Most of us would not have had a chance to be here. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want us, as a House, at an opportune time, using our county governments to have a law that requires that every county government documents historical facts that happened. A museum is a function of county governments. We should recognize heroes who come from those county governments. Perhaps, in the past, our history was written in a skewed manner so that certain people who did great things in Turkana are never remembered unless you are within a hundred metres radius from Nairobi. So, it is important that we ensure that our history is documented well. The county governments should use the function of museums so that we have a sport museum in Elgeyo-Marakwet County. Great sportsmen from that county should be recognized. We have great military men like Gen. Mulinge. This is something that can be remembered by Machakos County. They should have something. They should even construct a road or construct a particular entity and call it Gen. Mulinge Road, Gen. Mulinge Museum or Gen. Mulinge Institute and so on. This is the only way the youth of this country can remember our history. With those few remarks, I want to, once again, send condolences and ask Kenyans, especially we, politicians, that at such a time - when we celebrate a man who sacrificed his life to ensure that this country is together, we should be united. We should 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."
}