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"id": 51986,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. ole Ntimama",
"speaker_title": "The Minister of State for National Heritage and Culture",
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"legal_name": "William Ronkorua ole Ntimama",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I want to support this Bill very strongly. I think the fact that this country promulgated the new Constitution and passed it by 67 per cent was really a great thing for Kenya. This country voted two or three times and we were not able to get the Constitution. Let us talk about the Lancaster House Constitution. What happened? After the Lancaster House, an agreement was reached at by all communities, including the White community, KANU and KADU, but when they came back in 1964, it did not last. It was abrogated. The Senate was sent home reeling. The majimbo system was also disbanded. We accepted and adopted a culture of dictatorship. We adopted a culture of grabbing. We adopted a culture of the Head of State being a semi-god who was actually able to do anything and who was above the law. It continued until just the other day when we got this new Constitution. It was a struggle. It was war to try and get where we are today. So, this is a golden opportunity for this country to try and implement this Constitution, so that our people will benefit. This Constitution definitely is a darling of the citizenry in this country. They passed it with a big majority. The thing is for us, especially this House, to really put ourselves in order; to be part and parcel of the implementation of this Constitution. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to say quite frankly that we know that there are some people who want to scuttle this Constitution again. There are some people who do not want to implement this Constitution properly. They want to return us to the pharaohs. They want to return us to Egypt where we were slaves of a few people. Therefore, I want to urge Members of Parliament here to be serious about the implementation of this Constitution, so that we can really put it in our minds that we are serious with every Bill that comes here and we pass it, so that we get a new fundamental law. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was surprised. I am saying this because I have no doubt that according to some investigation here, there are some people who do not want this Constitution to be implemented. I want to pass a good word to the Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs, Mr. Mutula Kilonzo and the Chairman of the Commission of Implementation of the Constitution, Mr. Charles Nyachae, for their exemplary efforts in trying to make sure that this Constitution is implemented. We must help them. If we do not help them, we will go back to the deep holes of this world. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was surprised just yesterday when an hon. Member stood up and made a statement to try and block this Bill from being discussed just because, as he said, they did not agree in the Parliamentary Committee of Justice and Legal Affairs. You can see the sentiments of some of us here; we still want to block this Constitution. The main reason is because they disagreed in the Committee, because some rebel MPs decided not to have this Bill passed for reasons known to themselves. That is dangerous. Because we can see trends like these coming up, it is very dangerous and we must be very careful, so that we can stop these people from making the whole thing refuse to work at all. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is important to make sure that when the electoral laws come to be passed here and when they are actually passed into law, we should make sure as hon. Mutula Kilonzo said yesterday that there is no interference of the business of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. The problem that we faced in this country in 2007/08 occurred because everybody interfered with the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK). Everybody wanted to have a hand in what the Commission was going to do. It was really so bad because the powers that be, right on top, were part of the confusion; the MPs were part of the confusion and the public servants were part of the confusion. Even the clergy became part of the confusion. What did we have? Chaos, death, dislocation of communities and people who were wounded! We have not yet come out of that kind of situation because people confused and interfered with the ECK at the end. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to speak a little bit about the marginalized communities. The marginalized communities are known in this country. These are people who, for no fault of their own, were left by the British. They were really downtrodden. They were put in the periphery and the borderlines of society. They did not really matter in many things. They did not matter in development and we are still behind."
}