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    "id": 51586,
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    "content": "think about. As communities that care about their own, even the dead should matter to us because that is who we are. As African communities, we tend to be more spiritual and have more attachment to our dead. We like giving them a proper send-off. There are some of us who are able to give a proper sendoff to our loved ones. However, there are the very poor who cannot. I am sure that every hon. Member knows that, that is the greatest nightmare of Members of Parliament. Come every Friday, hon. Members look for money to help their constituents bury their dead ones. I was speaking to one hon. Member from Nairobi and he told me that on average, an MP representing a Nairobi Constituency has to raise money for about 20 to 30 coffins every week. If this is something that an MP must do on his or her own, no wonder we have challenges at the community level where people say that MPs do not help in community development. That is because the demands we put on an MP’s time and money are too high. Before I came to Parliament, I was lucky to have been training Members of Parliament. In one of those trips, and which the hon. Speaker was a party to, I was privileged to sit in the same car with Members from South Coast as we rode to the airport. I was shocked at the information that they were giving me in relation to the work an MP does. I actually came and saw it live for myself when I arrived here. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, a lot of people say that an MP is an ATM, which is true. I know that a lot of people have actually been challenging us and saying that even them, they do that kind of work, especially when they are talking about taxes. Yes, I know Kenyans do that, but this is a reality, and I am happy to be saying it as a nominated MP because sometimes, people need to also speak for MPs, especially the elected MPs. The burden that is on an MP in Kenya is unduly high. We must, as a country, acknowledge that we have translated an MP to a social protection system; a social security system. It is the MP, who ensures that people are buried, pays medical bills, provides for maternity fees for his constituents and pays for dowry. I know many people do not know that, but the MPs give money for their constituents to go and marry, get wives and even buy condoms. This is why this Motion is important because we need to ease some of the pressure of MPs, so that they can do the core-work of being an MP, which is community development but primarily, legislative work. The work of MPs, even though sometimes people challenge us and say that we rarely have enough MPs in the House, they are not here because they are in every Ministry knocking doors to help their constituents get a little here and there. I want to raise an issue that hon. Affey has raised in terms of timeliness of burials. I think it is a good thing that we should encourage communities to lessen the time within which they bury their dead ones. However, I want to also acknowledge one thing. It is good to borrow one culture from the other and share good practice. So, hon. Affey’s culture of burying the dead in a short time is a very commendable one, but I want him to also borrow the culture of the other side, which is mourning. It is excellent. Let the people mourn. Let them cry. The reason is that, that is psycho-therapy. If you do not get that psycho-therapy, that is why we have angry Kenyans. That is why we have Kenyans who are really mean to each other. We have bolted up emotions because we have not embraced the entire western system of dealing with issues through psycho-therapy. Whenever somebody died in the traditional sense, especially in communities where I came from, it was a celebration. People danced, screamed and wailed and that is why"
}