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"id": 497363,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/497363/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "October 30, 2014 SENATE DEBATES 41 Sen. Kajwang",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Earlier on, I was not sure how I was going to contribute; this is my confession, but after listening to Sen. Murungi and Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr., I have a very different idea of how I want to address this issue. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, let me start with some of the stories of my confessions. One of the persons I helped to nominate as a person with disability in Homa Bay County was a head teacher who was a little older than me, but we come from the same village. He was very fit until one morning when he could not feel his legs or even lift them. He told his wife that “I cannot go out for a short call.” The wife was shocked and she asked him why. He replied that he could not feel his legs. That was the beginning of his disability and up to now, he is on a wheelchair and crutches until his recent nomination. He represents the people with disability with a lot of passion because he knows how able-bodied he was just a few years ago and how it happened like lightning when he was asleep. So, it can even find you while you are asleep. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the other confession I want to talk about is of another relative of mine; I will not mention names because he might be offended. He was fit until the other day when he sent me text messages that we should meet for a drink or two, because we are friends. The next day, he sent me another text message and he told me “I have been hit by a stroke and wheel-chair and cannot walk or stand.” I asked what has happened that, in a flash, he is on a wheelchair; a person who was fending for his family but he is in that confinement now. I think it is Sen. Murungi who said that we are all candidates for disability. The MP for Kamukunji, until the other day was a very fit gentleman. In fact, when he was working with the Refugees Council in Geneva, I remember meeting him several times as a representative, not of Kenya, but he was working for the international body at a very senior level. When he came to Kenya, we elected him to Kamukunji and just because of some thuggery; you know that he is now confined to a wheelchair. So, it can happen to anybody. The women representative of Migori – a dynamic and very active young lady – we were campaigning with her during the aborted party elections of ODM just the other day. She was involved in an accident on the way home, was taken abroad for treatment and today when we met at the Orange House, she was on a wheelchair. So, it can happen to anybody, whether you are an MP, a Senator or whoever else you are. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, while making this law – and I think I want to quote the Speaker himself – we should not think that we are making it for somebody else; we are actually making it for ourselves and for this society. We need to protect our own, if not ourselves because it can happen any time. But I think hon. Members have said that enforcement has been very poor. We have written very beautiful words, as Sen. Ong’era has said, but enforcement has been a problem. I think we should look at enforcement other than reporting. Although the Members who are nominated into these Houses – whether it is the county assembly, the Senate or the National Assembly – have a duty to campaign for the enforcement of these rights, but they might end at campaigns. We must find enforcement somewhere; I was thinking of the Ombudsman writing to these bodies to ask them what they have done. But even the Ombudsman is complaining that he receives numerous letters and, of course, he does a lot of correspondence. But because there is no enforcement – should I put it the other way – 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."
}