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{
    "id": 675354,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/675354/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 255,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Midiwo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 184,
        "legal_name": "Washington Jakoyo Midiwo",
        "slug": "jakoyo-midiwo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to oppose this Report. Whether it is renewal or a new agreement, I think this country deserves respect from our former colonial masters. The historical injustices in Laikipia must not go without noting by this Parliament. We can never be a rubberstamp. Those of us who sit in the Committee questioned this agreement. We went to Laikipia and listened to people and Members of Parliament. You have heard the Member from Meru talking. We are not telling the UK Army to go away. We are telling them to negotiate. If we do not have issues with the British Government, then we need not have issues with any other government. On the issue of land, we were told by the CS, Defence, that the charges being imposed here are because of the value of land. The land in Laikipia that gave them opportunity to raid is so cheap as to be only Kshs7 million. The land in Laikipia that gave the world opportunity to stage the Gulf War is so cheap to be only Kshs7 million a year. I think it is absurd for our military to do what they are doing to us. They use Kahawa Garrison as storage at Kshs19 million. That cannot be accepted. That cannot have my vote. We are willing to engage the British. We are the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations, but we have a duty to the woman who was raped and to the people whose limbs have been blown off by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in that area. If this House cannot help reparate the people of Laikipia, who will? All we are saying is that they should sit with us and engage us. We are now awake and not as stupid as we used to be. I plead with my Committee Chair, the conflict of land, particularly in the Rift Valley, is not something this country can wish away. In Laikipia, there are British citizens who have lived there for a long time. They have 50,000 acres of land and one lion and we are calling them conservationists. We will never again do that through this House of Parliament. The issue of land is why Kenyans are so hostile to each other. You cannot move people en masse to another region of the country and let them keep having perpetual wars and friction over issues of land. Here is an opportunity. The reason why we reduced land tenure from 999 years to 99 years in the Constitution was to get some of this land back and resettle our people who were moved from the Nyeri area. You cannot have somebody keep one lion and be so happy to call them conservationist. As a country, where is the moral authority of the Government? We want to live with the British. Now they are talking about Brexit because they are feeling smothered by foreigners. That is why they want to restrict how foreigners go into their country. If we are not feeling that the land of our people in Laikipia is being occupied by foreigners illegally, but politicians are stamping authority, we are not good enough to be the leaders of this country. I oppose and this thing must not pass this House. I say this to Members, particularly those from the Jubilee Coalition, because dissentions are largely coming from those in CORD. Members from the Jubilee Coalition fear authority, which is a very good thing, but reason with authority."
}