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"id": 50196,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/50196/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Eseli",
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"speaker": {
"id": 141,
"legal_name": "David Eseli Simiyu",
"slug": "david-eseli"
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise under Standing Order No.76 to issue a Personal Statement. On the night of 29th and 30th May, I and some members of my political party, FORD(K), were victims of a violent attack at Park Villa Hotel in Webuye at around midnight. I wish to make a Personal Statement regarding the events of that fateful night, since it may be a serious threat to my personal security, that of my supporters and to set the record straight in view of some utterances by senior labour movement leadership and distortion of events by a section of the media. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I left Nairobi on Friday 29th at about 2.00 p.m. for Western Kenya, with the intention to lay down campaign programmes for my political party nominee for Kimilili Municipality Civic By-election that is due soon. I arrived in Webuye just after 8.00 p.m. and went straight to my hotel room at Park Villa Hotel, a room which I had booked via a telephone call while in Nairobi. I had also made several appointments for people from Kimilili Town to see me in the course of that evening. Upon arrival, I started seeing the various people I had summoned, and held lengthy discussions with separate groups of FORD(K) members. At about midnight, I completed the exercise and they all went for a meal in the hotel dining room while I opted to stay and eat from my room. As I was eating, there was a knock on the door with a call âroom serviceâ. Not suspecting any foul play, I opened the door only to be confronted by the waiter with three men dressed in police jungle uniform. One of them was wielding a gun. They asked if I was hon. Eseli and I answered in the affirmative. They pushed me into the room and proceeded to harass me, stealing money, a camera, a pair of shoes, a black leather wallet with cheque books and my two telephones. They then herded in those who were in the dining hall and also harassed them, stealing money and telephones from them while beating up some of them, including one hotel watchman. They locked us up in the room from outside and left. After ten to 15 minutes, we broke the door and found our clothing abandoned at the doorstep. We went out to the reception area and found out that it had also been broken into, but we could not find anybody. The whole hotel was quiet. The watchman, who was bundled in the room with us, managed to trace a colleague of his in a secluded part of the hotel compound asleep. He claimed he had not heard anything. He used his telephone to call the manager of the security company that deals with them. At this stage, we decided to report the incident to the police station, but could not find the keys to the gate. We used force to break the chain and lock of one gate. We got into the two cars used by the people from Kimilili and reported the incident to the police station, which is about three kilometers away. We came back with the police and found the hotel manager, the waiter, the receptionist and the manager of the security company at the hotel reception area. They told us that another room had also been broken into and a resident robbed. But they had since moved the resident to another room. The manager claimed to have been asleep in a room opposite my room as it was being broken into, but said that he did not hear anything despite the loud commotion the attackers caused, the noise we made as we broke the door and the gate and the loud talking we did on freeing ourselves from the room. The police and manager knocked on the door and windows of the room where the alleged other victim was transferred to and identified themselves. But whoever was in the room never opened for them. So, we did not know who was in that room. We recorded the telephone numbers of our stolen sets with the police and I released the people from Kimilili to go while I opted to stay, so as not to cause anxiety when my driver and guard came for me in the morning, since I had no means of communicating with them. Despite the hotel offering me an alternative room for the remaining night, I opted to secretly go back to the room where I was attacked, fortified by our Bukusu beliefs that lightning does not strike the same tree twice. In the morning, my guard and driver came for me and we left the hotel, only returning on Sunday to the police station to write my statement. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, at the moment, there is heightened political activity and temperatures in Bungoma County and especially Kimilili Constituency, fanned by frequent political rallies organized by people from outside the constituency. There is also what promises to be a hotly contested by-election for a civic ward in Kimilili Municipality. Kimilili Constituency is the stronghold of FORD(K) and is represented by me, since I am the only pure FORD(K) MP here. Consequently, there have been concerted efforts to dislodge FORD(K) from that vantage position. The incident in Webuye, to me, appears to have been arranged to intimidate and humiliate the Kimilili FORD(K) membership, and has the potential to turn tragic if repeated. I fear that my life and the lives of my supporters may be in danger. I, therefore urge the security services to urgently investigate the matter to conclusion, so as to discourage any such incidents in future. I urge my supporters and the entire FORD-Kenya membership, especially in the region where the incident occurred, to remain calm but vigilant, as far as their personal security is concerned. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}