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"id": 767248,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/767248/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Ekal",
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"speaker": {
"id": 13226,
"legal_name": "Malachy Charles Ekal Imana",
"slug": "malachy-charles-ekal-imana"
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me the chance to also put my voice into supporting this Motion. Thank you, Sen. Dullo for bringing up this Motion because this is like you actually just wanted to put one in for me. It is good that we come from a region that suffers from the same problems and so our problems are common. When I look at the Motion of today, and allow me to read. Article 43, 1(c) and (d) of the Constitution of Kenya provide for economic and social rights for every person and in particular the right to be free from hunger. We, the Turkana people, are never free of hunger. So, are we considered human? If this is the right of every Kenyan to be free from hunger, we are always hungry. That seems, to me, that somebody is breaking the law to have adequate food and acceptable quality. There is never adequate food of that acceptable quality and to have clean and safe water in adequate quantities. What is this? This is in the law and you just do not understand why this is not in operation. If this is the law, somebody should be arrested for not putting it in operation. In Turkana County, the most famous word is the word akoro which means hunger. Whenever I call a relative, I say “ Nyai ”; that is, “How are you?” Ahoro, that is always the response. What is the reason for this? Why must our people be the ones suffering from this akoro issue when we have a law like this which guarantees every citizen of this country to have adequate food and water and to be taken care of? There are people in this country who are never taken care of. I would like to know the reason why. I think that one of the reasons is the fact that nobody ever thinks about problems. This is what somebody mentioned that in a place like Israel which is a worse desert than, for example, Turkana, Wajir or Marsabit counties. Those people try to solve their problems. They put research into their problems and look for solutions and go ahead and effect those solutions to solve those problems. In this country, we know that there are problems like this, but we never make the effort to solve them. More so, if you go into the offices that are supposed to put this in effect, these would probably be people that never knew hunger or thirst, not even for a single day. May be they are people that are kind of struggling with their weight because they are well fed. So, they do not know what it means to be hungry and thirsty. Why should offices where food distribution is the main job be manned by people who do not know what it means to be hungry or thirsty? Why should these offices not be manned by people like me who know what it means to be hungry and thirsty? When you look at the other side, and again allow me to read, the situation in drought far-flung parts of the country poses a serious threat to human dignity. Surely, we do not have that dignity because we have this problem. Human dignity, peace, security and stability fall on loss on livelihoods leading to scramble for scarce resources by the affected communities. If you listened to yesterday’s speech during the inauguration, you would hear a lot of talk about peace in this country. There is no peace in this country because we have these problems of hunger and scarce resources. People are always fighting about this lack of resources. We have problems between us and our cousins in Uganda. Only a week ago, The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}