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{
    "id": 683018,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/683018/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 224,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Anami",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2773,
        "legal_name": "Lisamula Silverse Anami",
        "slug": "lisamula-silverse-anami"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. This is an important Bill and I would like to support it. It is long overdue. This Bill will open a getaway to other interventions that will give Kenya its identity and a place in the international space. We are talking about the founder of this nation. He was a cultural practitioner and it is upon his philosophy that a lot of our instruments are based. His personal experiences have brought Kenyans together. Many Kenyans across the board are named after Kenyatta. We cannot take for granted the fact that he abandoned his name to take one that is more embracive and inclusive. That should be the basis of our identity, aspirations and continuity. Every country, just like every community, has two important attributes - identity and aspirations. Those will be best captured in the Kenyan case if we relive Kenyatta’s life. While serving as a Director of Culture in this country, I can say with authority that it is on the basis of his philosophy that Kenya ratified the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The contribution of Jomo Kenyatta in his cultural book, Facing Mount Kenya brought African delegates together in the negotiation of this convention that we have since ratified as a country. Ratifying a convention like that is not enough until we have domesticated it. I am excited by the provisions of this Bill because it provides for an avenue for implementation of a lot of prospects in this convention. If you look at the history of this country, you cannot finish reading it even by two paragraphs without mentioning Jomo Kenyatta. The best way to capture this is by going through his life. The mausoleum is not enough. We need an improved infrastructure that is properly designed so that a person going through it can understand what Kenya is and what her people are. We should seize this opportunity and provide the mausoleum for Kenyans. We have lost opportunities to inculcate integration amongst Kenyans and to inculcate good behaviour, brotherhood and Pan-Africanism amongst Kenyans. That is because we do not make reference to those Pan-Africanists. You will find that, in other countries, they make more reference on Kenyatta than us, the Kenyans. We need to seize the opportunity of this Kenyatta Mausoleum Bill to come up with a comprehensive platform and infrastructure that will make Kenyans be proud of their heritage, forefathers and especially the founding father. We have lost opportunities of tourism because many visitors are not able to go to our roots and see the big story that is Jomo Kenyatta. We need to seize this quickly so that we can benefit from the opportunities within the tourism sector. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the whole aspect of transition, we have been in it for a fairly long time as Kenyans. We talk of this, that and the other liberation. We never take it to a conclusive end which gives us a philosophy that makes us Kenyans. We have never felt like Kenyans. We only continue feeling that we are small compartments of Luhya, Luos, Kikuyus and so forth. It is because we have not tried to inculcate into our education system values that have been enhanced in the speeches, writings and actions of our fore-leaders."
}