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{
    "id": 675065,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/675065/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 176,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. ole Ntutu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2535,
        "legal_name": "Patrick Keturet Ole Ntutu",
        "slug": "patrick-keturet-ole-ntutu"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion of village elders. I rise to support the Motion and I want to thank Hon. Injendi for bringing it to this House. The function of the village elders in our constituencies cannot be overemphasised. All Members particularly, those who have contributed have all recognised the importance of the village elders in our various villages. As stated by my colleagues, one of the biggest jobs that they do is security. Security in this country is such an important component in our development because without peace, there would be no development. When you look at the function of village elders, they assist assistant chiefs in gathering information and solving petty crimes down there in the village. Registration of birth is such an important component of a village elder because sometimes children are born in the village and they are the ones who register them so that the information can be transferred to the hospitals for registration. We all know that when you want to organise a meeting in your village, it is always the village elders. When you call an assistant chief or a chief, they also call the village elders to organise a meeting. It is not good to give people a job that they do not get paid for. When you look at the hierarchy of Provincial Administration in the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, it used to start with the PC and went to the DC, DO, chief and assistant chief. What this Motion wants to bring is another ladder down from the assistant chief so that we can remunerate village elders. Otherwise, we are condoning corruption because at the end of the day, there is that thing that everybody keeps on mentioning, the kiinuamgongo. That is corruption. As a House, we should allow that. We should regularise payment of those village elders so that they can get some allowances. I want to urge my good friend Injendi that the Motion is not enough because it just tells the Government to do this. I want to request you to go further and I will be more than willing and all those other Members are willing to support you. Go further and draft a Bill and bring it before this House. Now that we still have one more budget cycle, we can bring this to the Departmental Committee on Budget and Appropriations Committee and agree the amount that every village elder can be paid. That is the only way we can help those village elders. 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."
}