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{
    "id": 835946,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/835946/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 240,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I join you and my fellow Senators in condoling with the families, relatives and friends of those who lost their lives in that grisly accident at Fort Ternan. I have not heard of another country like ours where people die in terms of 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s or even a 100 and it is not shocking news. It is just temporary shocking news. If you go to the international pages of the Kenyan newspapers, you will find them reporting that an accident occurred in Tokyo and two people died. There could be a train accident in India and maybe 20 people died. In our country, people die in 100s in road accidents and it is not even reported in Tanzania and Uganda since it has become normal. This should sadden us. We have people dying in their 50s and if it was in any other country in the world, it would have been the headlines of many newsrooms, including the New York Times . However, in Kenya, we have made the abnormal become normal and we must start thinking and becoming uncomfortable. The President of this Republic must bring back the issue of roads not just as transport, but this should be part of security and health. This is because roads kill people more than the diseases that we treat in this country. We are fighting so hard to get universal healthcare so as to prevent deaths through diseases but more people are dying because of road accidents. It means that we must rethink our policies. You are more likely to die in Kenya today if you are traveling on a road than when you are sitting in a hospital waiting for treatment. This is terrible. It is not enough for the Chairperson to lament what is taking place in the sector. It is time for us to provide solutions. This is not just a legislative issue. I think the first duty is not just to the driver or the owner of the bus; the first duty is to the passenger. We must educate people to know what a 42 or 62-seater bus is; and what a 14-seater matatu is, so that once you enter a matatu or a bus and it is already full, you should disembark. If you are sitting inside a bus which is already carrying 62 people, which is the maximum number of people the bus can carry, you should chase the people who come in. That should be the first duty. Secondly, 50 grown-ups cannot be driven by a reckless driver, yet nobody tells the driver, “stop the bus; we want to have a conversation with you.” You just sit in a bus that you know is overloaded, which passes through all those road blocks, but you do not want to take responsibility as a citizen and report it to the police. If you have paid The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}