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{
    "id": 811727,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/811727/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 222,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugunja, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. James Wandayi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2960,
        "legal_name": "James Opiyo Wandayi",
        "slug": "james-opiyo-wandayi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I have been eagerly waiting to get this opportunity. Firstly, I want to thank Hon. John Mbadi, the Leader of the Minority Party, for introducing this very critical Motion. I want, at the outset, to support the Motion as amended in its entirety. As I do so, I must acknowledge the fact that Hon. Mbadi has been a little bit diplomatic. He has couched his Motion in a lot of diplomatic language, but we must be able to call a spade a spade. We are talking of a situation, if I restrict myself to Migingo - I know the other islands have similar problems, but I want to speak about Migingo Island - where Kenyan citizens, principally originating from the Luo Community, are under constant attack and humiliation by forces from a foreign country. As Hon. Mbadi said earlier, that is something that is unheard of. If this country were America or Israel, for example, such an act of aggression by a country purporting to be a friendly neighbour would attract serious reprisals and counter attack. But we are talking about a country that has chosen to sit meekly, sit back and watch as forces from a neighbouring country continue to denigrate its own citizens. The cardinal responsibility of every sovereign state is to protect its territorial integrity. Other than protecting the lives and property of its citizens, a sovereign state has the cardinal responsibility to protect jealously its territorial integrity. It is not enough that the Ugandan forces, in fact, let me call them by their name as forces from Uganda, are crossing into Kenya and harassing Kenyan citizens living on the Migingo Island. They have gone ahead and started arresting Kenyan security forces, something that is unheard of. The forces from a neighbouring country can get into Kenya and not only harass Kenyan citizens but go ahead and purport to arrest Kenyan police officers and take them to Ugandan territory where they hold them in custody not for one, but for two days and you hear no comment from either the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or State House. It is something which should concern all of us as a country. If it were in the normal way of doing things, the moment these forces crossed into Kenya and attempted to do what they did, the Kenyan High Commissioner to Uganda would have been recalled immediately for debriefing, followed by a very stern note or warning to the Ugandan High Commissioner in Nairobi to take back to his masters in Kampala. We must also understand the origin of this problem. The problem we have, and we must say it, is that the National Resistance Movement (NRM) leadership in Uganda has had historical problems with members of the Luo Community living in Uganda. Now they have exported that problem into Kenya. People cannot continue to be punished by Ugandan security forces on account of the political differences that the Ugandan leadership has with members of the Luo Community in Uganda. We must say here and now that the Kenyan Government’s duty is to protect every Kenyan citizen regardless of their ethnic affiliation, and members of the Luo Community are no secondary citizens in this country. So, the matter of Migingo Island must be addressed as a matter of urgency."
}