{"id":585420,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/585420/?format=json","text_counter":183,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. (Dr.) Kibunguchy","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":294,"legal_name":"Enoch Wamalwa Kibunguchy","slug":"enoch-kibunguchy"},"content":"Secondly, when we talk about athletics, the county governments should lay the infrastructure for sports academics. We need to start tapping those talents at a very early age. For those who love football, they know that Lionel Messi, the great footballer of the world at the moment, was tapped when he was 7 years old. He was put in the Barcelona Sports Academy. Now there he is, and you can see the wonders he does with the ball. Every county should set up a sports academy to tap some of the youths at the very early age and nurture them in whatever sports field it is, be it football, athletics or volleyball. There was a time that this country was renowned for boxing. But it has now gone down the doldrums. I would also like to talk about Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). I want talk about them because they are very close to my heart. Unfortunately in this country, when we talk about IDPs, everybody seems to concentrate on the post-election violence that happened in the late 2007 and early 2008. We tend to forget that we have had post-election and political violence in this country that date back to independence. Those of us who come from western Kenya understand that, at the time of independence, there was political violence which became worse at the advent of multi-party elections. Many people from Mt. Elgon and Bungoma fled their homes and they were scattered to the four corners of this country. Every Government has virtually forgotten about them. When we sit here and talk about IDPs, people talk about whatever happened recently in the disputed elections of 2007/2008, but tend to forget that there are very many people who are affected because of political violence for many areas, and people never mention about it. We need to look at the historical injustices. I say this because my own family was affected in the 1991-1993 clashes at the advent of multi-party elections. We need to go back and see how well those people can be assisted. Many have died but they still have their children and grandchildren whom we need to take care of. In concluding, there was a great philosopher who once said that it is only a fool who does things the same way and expects different results. Since independence, we have done things the same way until the new Constitution came into place. One fundamental departure in the new Constitution was devolution. Devolution was meant to change the way we do things in this country, so that we are not fools. Devolution has picked up, but we need to give it a lot of support. Otherwise, people will start clamoring saying that we go back to the centralized government. Devolution is the one change that will be beneficial to this country, but we must nurture, protect and make it grow."}