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{
    "id": 71118,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/71118/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 328,
    "type": "other",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "parliamentarians, who know the importance of boarding facilities in ASAL areas. We are not saying that it is only you and I as a Parliamentarian who knows the importance of boarding facilities for these Arid and Semi Arid Lands (ASAL) areas. Two, the majority of those communities that are involved in cattle rustling are in ASAL areas. These areas are mainly characteristics by a hostile and dry environment and scarcity of water. You cannot keep livestock where there is no water. Therefore, drought is so prevalent and these people are forced to move to other places to look for these scarce resources. They come from different directions because availability of water points are also limited. They will converge at where there is water and then from there, certainly because they have to scramble for that water, then they are bound to clash. So, what we are saying is that as a solution to that problem, the Government should be able to provide water points in the form boreholes, dams and pans in their respective areas so that it limits the movement of the animals. This is not happening. When it happens, you will find that a lot of resources are pumped into one region. This issue was raised here. Then what do you expect to happen? They will continue with that kind of marginalization. This is the problem. Therefore, what we are saying is that we got a good report yes, but we doubt and I must say without any fear of contradiction, without the commitment of the Government because it is not anything new--- We hope with these recommendations that at least, the Government should be able to do it this time. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to say things here, so that my colleagues will be able to contribute. The Government should recognize traditional governorship. Cattle rustling is not a new phenomenon. It is an old thing, it has been there. The only thing now is that it is sophisticated because of the proliferation of firearms which never used to be there, and commercialization of cattle rustling which does not necessarily mean that the people who are stealing cattle are the same ones who are selling them. So, it involves even other players who may not necessarily be pastoralists. But I think ever since the beginning of the problem of cattle rustling, there has been a traditional governance through a council of elders where once animals have been traced following footprints to a given community, they would be able to sit down and if they will not be able to get the criminals, then they pay the animals. However, now the Government is imposing some unnecessary declarations like what they call Modogashe Declaration. What happened in Samburu in the year 2009 is really a very bad day and I think it will never disappear in the history of Kenya, where the Government instead of pursuing criminals, they deployed over 20 lorries with about 400 security personnel backed with military choppers as if they were going to attack another country and rounded up animals at water points in the grazing fields. They were not able to identify who were the cattle rustlers from the herds and which animals had been stolen from the herds. They just rounded up animals. I mean you have no business to know whether the owner of these animals is a Government employee, whether she is a widower, you just round up animals and drive them across and then you go and give them to other communities for the simple reason that the ones involved in cattle rustling came from the other community. So, the other communities are just left there and nobody cares what happens to them. We are now saying, and this should go on record, that those of us who come from Samburu East, we are poor because we are made to be poor by this Government and the authorities in the office of the President. This is the most notorious Ministry I have ever"
}