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{
    "id": 782500,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/782500/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 367,
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    "content": "whether or not that you may fly the National Flag on the occasion of Independence or use it to decorate your shops and buildings will take not of what I said.” It is not the flying of the flag that this Bill seeks to prohibit as such but the use for commercial purposes by those who import and manufacture. That was the import and the mischief behind the National Flag, Emblems and Names Act. How it ended up having this preamble is strange to me. It states as follows:- “An Act of Parliament to prevent the improper use of the National Flag and of certain emblems, names, words and likenesses for professional and commercial purposes, and to prohibit the display of certain flags.” The prohibition here is not in tandem with nationhood. Therefore without belabouring the point and going into unnecessary details, there are examples upon examples, but I have just cited one. In Sweden, Germany and all the places I have visited, people fly flags in residences and homes. Why should we not fly flags when Harambee Stars is playing or when receiving our athletes back? We should remind ourselves why we have the flags. I read in detail the HANSARD and discovered how we ended up having the colours of our flag. It was a compromise because of very many flags by Kenya African Democratic Union (KADU) and others. Everybody contributed to the colours of our flag. On the material day before Independence, we all set aside our political differences to contribute to the colours of the flag of this nation. I want to fly my flag outside my office with a very long pole to show that I am proud to be Kenyan. I have seen people put on badges like sometimes you do. Let the badges be used even for commercial purposes because the Government of Kenya can create income out of that. The flag in my office cost a whopping Kshs20,000. Maybe that can be one avenue where the Government can make money by regularizing the use of the flag. We should remove the prohibitions on the flag. Let it not be a preserve of Cabinet Secretaries who break traffic rules by overlapping with blaring sirens on, for those who have them, to show that they are powerful and they can overtake. That should be a symbol to show that we are all Kenyans. We have been divided and we have lived in a very bad state. I am proud of the two gentlemen who shook hands at Harambee House. Those who have seen the politics of it have turned a blind eye to the politics of that handshake. I believe Kenya is bigger than the President and the Rt. Hon. Raila Amolo Odinga. This Bill does not concern counties but everybody. This is one of the Bills that we must embrace. Somebody bothered to ask what is more important to me. They wanted to know whether it is the building of dams and bridges and water provision in Makueni or the flag that is important. That is the community of people who are lost. The Bible says in Mathew 6:33: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” I say the same about this country; let us seek nationhood first as one country, Kenya and everything else; your presidential ambitions and my ambitions, whatever they 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."
}