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{
    "id": 442975,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/442975/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "to it with a heavy heart. I think this is the second time in two weeks that we are actually adjourning business of this House to discuss the same matter on issues to do with security. It is also a matter that I think we discussed for the first time we came to the Senate when we had issues in Samburu and Bungoma; and we are still discussing the same issues. I think it will be laughable if we took partisan positions on this matter. It will be unbelievable if that is the position we would have taken when we were discussing this matter, because there are people who are mourning; there are Kenyans who are looking up to us to show leadership and to show the way on solving this matter once and for all. Madam Temporary Speaker, touching on some of the issues that have been discussed, one of them being the summons and the predictability of how we handle these matters every time they happen, they are on the front page, then officers enter a chopper from Wilson Airport, fly there, talk to the people, sleep in the nearby town, come back to Nairobi; and then summons are issued; then the people so summoned go to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and record statements. Even a small child can actually tell you over the years how we handle this matter, and nothing has changed. Can those who are in charge surprise us one day? You should just surprise us, Kenyans. As we are waiting for that cycle, just decide to do something different; actually prosecute! Let us see the people you keep referring to, saying “it is his people” or “it is politicians;” these politicians have names. These politicians have been given the responsibility to lead and protect their people. If you know who they are, prosecute them. Let them be seen in the dock; but stop telling us: “We are sending a very stern warning.” I am so used to those headlines now and I am sure Kenyans are tired. I think it is even a mockery to those who are mourning that we keep issuing warnings. All I am asking is that, just do it; and probably the next time you call a press conference, call it when you have done it, not when you are saying: “I will do it; we will arrest; we will prosecute.” Call us and say “we have done it and these people are behind it.” The reason I am saying this is because most of the time after you check these leaders and you summon them to go and record those statements, they become heroes in their own backyards. They go and tell their people “you saw, I was even taken; I signed; now I am a hero.” That impunity has to end. Madam Temporary Speaker, I think it is also important to say that we have to find homegrown solutions for our areas and counties. Probably it is not too bad an idea to think of how we can involve the local leadership at the counties on how they can manage security. We need to invest in dialogue even at the local level in the peace processes for the long haul. People who have been fighting - like in Wajir – that did not start today; then you want to send a few people there to go, mediate and, in two weeks, come back to Nairobi and say that everything is fine. It is not possible. For people who have fought for the last 50 years, you have to be ready to invest long term in the peace processes. The communities have to sit down – whether it will take three or four years – but all these processes have to be ongoing in order for these communities to know that it is not right to kill each other over imaginary boundaries. Actually, if you asked them where an imaginary boundary is, they do not even know that this is the boundary; it is just imaginary. Sometimes we even tell those communities “Okay, fine; the boundary has 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."
}