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{
    "id": 575131,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/575131/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 282,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "promoting national cohesion and enhancing stakeholder compliance with legal and regulatory requirements regarding cohesion and integration. They also help in mitigating the risks that predispose a country to conflict and promoting sustainable growth and development. The report is going to be tabled for Members to go through it, but either way we can still discuss this. President Barrack Obama was here last weekend and he said many things. There is nothing special about the world that he said. He just took us back to the basics. He left me with one quote that I will never forget. He said that we should not view the world as it has always been, but as how it should be. For our context as Kenyans, we should not view this country in terms of how it has always been but how it should be. This country has had a lot of ethnic friction since the time of Independence till today. We forget the fact that Kenya is only 583,000Km2 and we can all find a way to get along. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to implore upon us and especially our young people. Every Kenyan wants the same thing at the end of the day; to go about their lives peacefully and to make something out of their lives. However, for far too long, we politicians and other leaders have used ethnicity to divide Kenyans and we forget that we have more that can unite us than that which differentiates us. I have observed in this House that there are people who are deep friends across tribe and political divides. But whenever we stand up on a podium it is very easy, because of our interest, to bring up ethnic sentiments and emotions. That will not give us a sustainable future as a country. If we can provide for equal opportunities and the framework for that is already provided for in this Sessional Paper--- If a Kenyan, deep in Wajir knows that he has the same opportunity as a Kenyan in Kakamega or Nairobi or Kitui, we will have nothing to fight about. However, for far too long, we have been dividing Kenyans along ethnic lines and not based on the content of their character. As a Committee we are committed to implement this Sessional Paper to make sure that we have the correct framework. One of the issues I spoke about in the earlier Motion was that of equal employment opportunities. Whenever there is a list of appointments, people are quick to say that their communities have been left out. It is as if having somebody from your community there means that they are going to bring something home. I have seen deep poverty in all parts of this country. Nonetheless, no Kenyan should feel that because of where they come from, they are being discriminated against by the Government in power. We need to equalize all those opportunities and provide equity. Another issue we are dealing with is devolution. We did not propose that system so that we can create ethnic Balkans in this country. The County Government Act is very clear, that not more than 30 per cent of those people hired in a county should come from the dominant community. But a Report that we have received from the NCSA shows that very few countries have been able to achieve that. There are many Kenyans in the third generation who have been in counties that are not--- I do not know how I can put it. For example, if somebody’s great grandfather is from Nyeri, but his grandfather moved to Kakamega, and that person’s grandfather, father and the rest are from Kakamega, it has become very difficult for that person to get a job in Kakamega and so they are told to go back to Nyeri and vice versa. Somebody called “Wafula” in Nyeri will also have a very difficult chance to get a job. That is something we must be very hard on, as a Parliament, so that we remove many of these artificial barriers that we have had in this country and that have been dividing us. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}