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{
    "id": 812833,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/812833/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 88,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is a very important Statement and we commend the distinguished Senator for Turkana County. Sometimes resources like oil, as he has said quite rightly in his Statement, can be a curse. If you look at some of the countries with the greatest resources in the world, they are not necessarily the countries that are doing well. There are some countries without mineral resources or even commodities that could be sold in international market which are actually not doing well. However, there are countries which are just based on providing services and communications and they are doing quite well. If you look at what is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), one of the richest countries in the world – I dare say – an ordinary Congolese from that country cannot be proud of the wealth and resources in that country ever since they attained independence from the Belgians. The colonial powers priced those countries because of their resources. Angola, even after getting independence from the Portuguese which they had to fight for over years, is not yet out of the woods. In the northern part of Africa, even where there was stability like in Libya, although without democracy, the resources of oil are not giving the returns that Libyans expect. Therefore, the oil found in Turkana cannot be for the benefit of this country and more particularly, for the Turkana County if the problem of insecurity there is not addressed. I dare say that the question of insecurity in Turkana and Pokot is becoming an embarrassment because they are not beginning today; they began even before Independence. One would have thought that, now with our Governments in the post- colonial period, we would be able to offer peace and security for Turkana and those other counties which, for all that period, have not known peace and stability. So, for us to get the premium from oil as a nation and a country – leave alone Turkana – the issues of peace and security, law and order should be addressed. It is not peace as we understand it; it is peace as the people who are in Turkana themselves understand peace to be. This is because sometimes we think that by taking policemen there and giving orders of shoot-to-kill we are creating conditions of peace. That may not create peace in Turkana. The people in Turkana and Pokot have learned to be very good marksmen; they are better than even our police forces. However, they do not shoot to kill. They shoot to defend their property, livestock and territory. So long as you do not guarantee them peace, they will continue to get means and tools of providing peace and security for 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."
}