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{
    "id": 702724,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/702724/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 271,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Chebet",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 550,
        "legal_name": "Susan Kipketer Chebet",
        "slug": "susan-kipketer-chebet"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity. I sought for the adjournment of this House this afternoon because of the insecurity in various parts of Kenya, particularly in the Kerio Valley. We have lost many people in the past few days; we are burying like three people every weekend and that has been very painful. Secondly, we have lost a lot of livestock because two communities are fighting: the Pokot and the Marakwet communities. We have lost livestock which we cannot even estimate their numbers at the moment. We have also lost opportunities for our students. Our children were going to school. The education sector has really suffered because of this problem. We have children going to school. We have children who have been preparing for exams and they cannot sit for their exams in the usual manner because they are terrified, traumatised and confused. They do not know how they will sit for the exams because they are not in their usual environment. These children are not in their homes. They live in caves at the moment. They share the caves with snakes. In fact, some of the children have been bitten by snakes as they seek refuge in those caves. Men and women are not sleeping in their homes and babies are suffering because they are exposed to cold or hot weather in the new environment they find themselves in. Those are some of the problems, just to name a few. Economic activities cannot be undertaken in the usual manner, as it is not business as usual in Kerio Valley. Every morning when people wake up, they do not know when gunshots will be fired. Last week when people were burying a dead person, gunshots were heard close to 300 metres from where they were. Everybody had to flee leaving the dead person to be buried later on. The situation in Kerio Valley is very serious and we do not know how it will improve. This is not the first time that this House is hearing reports or debating about insecurity in Kerio Valley. We have done it several times. The area Member of Parliament has done. We have all talked about it. The media have given it coverage and exposed it; only that we do not know when it will stop. We have the security personnel in Kerio Valley. They have been there close to three months, but we have not seen the situation improving. I do not think the security personnel deployed there have the interest of the people at heart. You find them patrolling the pathways and roads, but they do not go into the forests where the cattle rustlers hide. Sometimes you wonder whether they were deployed to just parade along the road with their weapons and then they vanish to their rooms or wherever they stay. In most cases, we have seen them court young girls. They are given biscuits for their upkeep, but they use those biscuits to lure young girls maybe for sexual favours. Those are some of the things that we have observed as a community and we would like an overhaul of the security personnel deployed to Kerio Valley so that we can get serious people ready to defend the people of Elgeyo Marakwet County. If we do not speak about this matter, history will judge us harshly for keeping quiet when our people are dying, when our livestock are being stolen and when our farms are drying up. 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."
}