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{
    "id": 476216,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/476216/?format=api",
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    "content": "of the Senate of Rwanda. I think we follow suit as being the only other Senate in the region. We have a lot to learn from Rwanda with respect to the structure of the Senate and particularly to borrow best practices. Today, I want to add my voice to the very critical nature of our associations and particularly in the African Continent. We belabour, in our African context, issues around regional cooperation based on infrastructure. We think development is a train that will move from the coast of Mombasa to Uganda or South Sudan. As much as infrastructure is a very important engine in terms of development, we must also partner on basis of values. I look forward to a day when we will refuse to associate with a country because of doubtful human rights record. I look forward when we will tell a President in the EAC States that since they hold political prisoners whose basis for incarceration is purely undemocratic and issues surrounding matters of human rights, our country will severe relationships with them. In fact, these are benchmarks that if you want to join the community of Europe, you have to demonstrate as a country that you have a certain threshold of human rights standards in addition to economic standards. It cannot only be about a market. This market is about people. These people only become productive if they are free and creative. If you look at our country Kenya, we use this policy of non-interference to the detriment of very common values that we must hold. Therefore, I do believe that even as we head to this cooperation, Kenya appears to have a more robust Parliament and democratic system that despite the various attempts to continue to narrow the democratic space, people have stood vigilant. Therefore, it is important that as Kenya expands its authority in the East African Community, it exports values to these communities so that they can tell them: “If you do not allow democracy, if you are accused of assassination of your people and the subjugation of democratic space, then we have nothing in common to share. Our cooperation or community must be about the people of East Africa. I think it is high time we started to import values. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, similar to the European Union, we should create a human rights court here that has powers to arbiter over the massive detentions and violations that we see across East Africa. How can any President win an election with a 95 per cent vote unless there is definitely some suffocation of the democratic space? The East African Community has been about Presidents and pampering each other with rhetoric that is not sincere. It is the people of East Africa, particularly engines like the Senate, other institutions and people to show that we need sincerity in terms of establishing a value system that cuts across the East African States. You shall not be among us just because we wanted a road to reach you so that we can transport your goods, you shall only be among us if you do not have political prisoners, you do not kill people arbitrarily and you do not suffocate democratic space or violate your democratic Constitutions. All the time we go to learn about genocide in Rwanda. There is nobody who has ever visited Rwanda on an official visit and has not been taken to the Genocide Mausoleum. We appreciate what happened. We sometimes must take blame for not having acted swiftly and intervened timely to avert the human carnage that happened there. Behind every genocide is a State. In fact, there cannot be genocide when there is 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."
}