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"content": "create a framework where we, as a nation, can focus and think through how to take care of those who are not as able as others. It is actually enlightened self-interest that we do so. Even if you are as healthy as it can be, even if you visit the most expensive hospitals in our nation, even if you see the most experienced and famous doctors in our nation as long as the neigbourhood in which you live in is full of sick individuals, you will never be healthy yourself. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is enlightened self-interest that you would want to ensure that people go to good doctors and hospitals so that they feel healthy. By the end of the day, what we want is a dignified nation; a nation where every individual counts themselves lucky to be Kenyans. We want everybody to say “ Najivunia kuwa Mkenya ” and mean it. In addition to your being healthy, if everybody around you is healthy, those who are denied can resort to all sorts of solutions to their denial, including criminal behaviour. That is why in some nations, particularly in Western Europe and America, if you do not have a job, there is a minimum level of supplies that the government allocates to you. If you do not have food to eat, you go and get some little amount of money that can make you get some food. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are not talking about communist Russia, we are talking about Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom (UK) where you get a certain minimum amount of money so that you can survive; social welfare. Even David Cameron, who is a personification of capitalism, cannot in the UK – a nation committed in totality to a capitalist system – remove social welfare from the system. That is the case in most of the other countries in Western Europe. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in Sweden, if you lose your job today, for the next year or so, you will get 75 per cent or so, of the salary you used to get so that you can remain a dignified person. You can sustain a certain life that you are used to so that your children do not get traumatized by what would happen to them if you are having nothing in your pocket. When you look at Members of Parliament (MPs) – because when you talk about social welfare and protection, people think that you are just talking about poor individuals - how many MPs straight after leaving Parliament have come to Parliament to beg? If you stand there, they will walk into there and say can they have Kshs30 to go and feed themselves. It is because those people were not on any kind of pension when they left and it continues to be the case even today. These were people who were dignified, people who led and changed other’s lives, people who changed how we do business in our country, but today, they are beggars on the streets. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, these are the kind of conditions that I feel should not be allowed. So, as we address the matter, let us not only think about those who are totally stricken by poverty. There are also people who were not poor yesterday, but, today, they are stricken by poverty just as if they have never been any different. We must address that issue. The Bill proposes monitoring of progress as far as economic and social rights and human rights are concerned. The only question I had, and that is why I think some The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}