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{
    "id": 49077,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/49077/?format=api",
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    "content": "(Prof. Saitoti): Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I hope that the ten minutes that I have will be taken into account. At the very outset, I wish to say that it is a matter of great regret that Kenya has lost the people in the hands of Ethiopians. The Government is very much concerned about this matter. It is a matter of great regret. I want to say the following. First of all, a figure of 50 people dead in Turkana has been given; they lost their lives in this incident. I hope that I will be able to get the enumerated names of these people; what I have here are names of 20 Turkana people who have died. At the same time, there are also four Ethiopians who died. If there are some people who died but were not recorded, I would be very grateful to get a list of their names. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, suffice it to say this Government, now and since we got Independence, has always lived up to its obligation to ensure that it does not allow an inch of this country to be taken by force by any other country. I do not think it is right to impute improper motive on the Government; that, it is willing to allow the territorial integrity of Kenya to be interfered with, in however small way, by another country. I believe that this Government, since Independence, has demonstrated its total resolve to repulse those intentions. Idi Amin tried and the Kenya Army was mobilized to the full. He never went beyond what he uttered. The situation in Mandera has been stated here. It is true that the Al Shabab from Somalia attempted to violate our own border and the sovereignty of this country. It is a well known matter and I am sure it is still fresh in the mind that we took very strong action. We repulsed those people and pushed them out of the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to the death of people in Turkana, I do not think it should be misinterpreted as an attempt by the Ethiopian Government to violate the territorial integrity of this country. We have no evidence and nobody can produce any evidence that it is the Ethiopian Army, under the command or direction of the Ethiopian Government, which crossed over to shoot Kenyans. Let us also take one thing into account. Kenya shares its borders with a number of countries. We share a border with Tanzania which has been stable all through. We have hardly had any major problem. The other countries are Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. Each of these countries has gone through a process of instability and, as a result of that, there has been proliferation of small arms and weapons. Those arms have found their way into the hands of the militia who are fighting those Governments. Therefore, I want us to debate this matter with very sober minds. It is not the Ethiopian Government which attacked Kenyans – it is the militia groups. We are bound to deal with them! However, there is also another thing that should"
}