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{
    "id": 60876,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/60876/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 252,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
    "speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 195,
        "legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
        "slug": "raila-odinga"
    },
    "content": " Thank you Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I think it is timely that the House breaks briefly, to go and reflect and come back refreshed as we open the new session which will be the second last session before Parliament is finally dissolved. I would like to congratulate the students and the schools that did very well in the just concluded KCSE. Looking at the results of the examination, you will see that, probably, time has come for us to have a general review of our education system to be in line with our Vision 2030, so that it can become more relevant to our economy in the coming years. Recently, I was appointed as a mediator in the Ivory Coast crisis. That experience was real an eye-opener for me. I arrived in Abidjan, the Capital of Cote d’Ivoire and found a country that was divided right in the middle. There were two Presidents; two Prime Ministers; two Cabinets; two armies; and, two capitals all in one country. Cote d’Ivoire used to be a very prosperous country. What has happened to Cote d’Ivoire could easily happen to this country. The politics of bigotry, ethnicity and intolerance have contributed to the destruction of that country. It is a situation where somebody said that they cannot be ruled by somebody from the North or by a Muslim or even by somebody from this or from that tribe. That careless talk is what has contributed to the plight of Cote d’Ivore today. We seem to have those kinds of elements in our society. They said that Mr. Monda’s presidency would be ethnically divisive to this country as if Mr. Monda’s community does not belong to Kenya. We must, therefore, guard against those kind of inflammatory statements. Momentous events are taking place in the African Continent. We have seen governments come down in Tunisia, Egypt and it is a matter of days before we have a new government in Libya. Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, Morroco and, may be, Aliyar are on the way. Those events are not an accident. They are part of a process; a process of change that people can tolerate some amount of dictatorship and intolerance just for a certain period of time. Egypt has been the same after the overthrow of the federal system of King Farouk in 1953. King Gamal Abdul Nasser, a military officer, handed over to Anwar Sadat a military officer. Sadat then handed over to Hosni Mubarak who has been there for over 30 years and was still demanding in February that he needed just a little time to carry out reforms. If we are not careful, we will be running the risk of taking the same route as these other countries. The reforms that we have initiated in this country can help us to avoid the consequences that are undermining the rule of law in this country. That is why I keep on telling this House - and will not tire to tell the House - that they have been given a very good opportunity to transcend this country from the mediocre of the past that has condemned this country to under-development for over 40 years to a decimal developed country by creating a proper democratic order. Therefore, we must say no to the past and to every ethnic chauvinist."
}