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{
    "id": 718745,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/718745/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 106,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to contribute to the discussion on the Statute Laws (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill. I will begin with the point that Hon. Muhia has just mentioned. We need to be very careful in this country about our attitude towards refugees. The fact of the matter is that Kenya is a signatory to the Geneva Convention on Refugees and we have obligations to protect refugees and treat them appropriately. We have just finished the Second Reading during the last Session of a new and comprehensive Refugees Bill brought by Hon. Agostinho Neto. I would urge Hon. Wanjiku and other Members who have concerns about the regime of refugee management in this country to participate at the Committee of the whole House stage with any necessary amendments to make sure that the final law that we pass on refugees is very good. But we have to be careful as leaders to remember that refugees are also people and that our utterances do not contribute to a culture in which they are seen as less than people and as foreigners or as enemies. This is a sad thing that is happening even in a country that used to be the beacon of freedom and international rule of law. Under President Trump, sadly, the United States of America is doing very crazy things, with bans on Muslims and other things. I do not think Kenya should be like that. We can make rules for security in our country and we can also live up to our values to treat people with dignity and take care of those who are fleeing countries where there is no peace and their lives are in danger. Kenya is beautiful because we have people of all religions and we welcome them too. When we get to the citizenship laws that are proposed to be amended, it talks about how citizenship by marriage is to be gained. But it is silent on issues of refugees who have married in Kenya. When we talk about management of places like Kakuma and Dadaab, especially Dadaab where there is a close-shared culture among the Kenyan population in Garissa County and parts of Wajir County that host Dadaab as well as the people of Somalia across the border where many of these refugees have come from, you will notice that in the over 20 years that have since passed, there has been a lot of intermarriages, children born, even some grandchildren born. If we wanted to shut down Dadaab and reduce it in a humane way, we would start with a recognition of Kenyans who have been double registered, take them out of the refugee database, give them Kenyan ID cards and let them vote in the 2017 elections. Who are the people of Dadaab who have married into Kenyan families or intermarried, and if they have lived without a criminal record and have had marriages that last over three years and are valid at the time of registration, we need to allow those refugees to become citizens by marriage or, at the very least, be granted as Section 37 proposes, permanent residence, so that they can move freely and get out 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."
}