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{
"id": 848372,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/848372/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "August 2, 2018 SENATE DEBATES 36 Sen. Sakaja",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I also want to join you in welcoming the students and to tell them that they are very lucky to have a great Senator in Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. We wish you all the best in your studies. I know that the young people of this country are the trustees of our country’s posterity. We pray that you will achieve all your dreams once you believe in God and yourselves. Madam Temporary Speaker, 48 out of the more than 200 victims, who were in a place where they considered the safe haven for themselves, their children and families, lost their lives in the most painful manner on the night of 9th May, 2018. We pray that the Lord God Almighty rest their souls in eternal peace. Fifty two children are orphaned and traumatized. Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. has told us that even a tyre bust in the area of Solai causes shock and trauma. They are dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. Women have become widows, men have become widowers and their livelihoods have been destroyed. Their lives will never be the same again. The question that has been going through my mind since this tragedy happened is: How do we honour the 48 Kenyans who died and the more than 200 people who have been affected through this tragedy? How else can we do that if not through this work that we are doing; by acknowledging that their lives mattered and were valuable and letting the truth of the circumstances that led to their death come out? How else do we honour them if not by doing all we can do to make sure that no other Kenyan, in the more than 583,000 square kilometres of this land we call Kenya, has do die such a painful death if is avoidable? Sometimes it is just a number and I am sure people have said that we sound like a broken record when we keep saying “48 people.” This Senate has 47 elected Senators and 20 Nominated Senators. If all the elected Senators of this Senate, including the Speaker, were to lose their lives at ago, through an avoidable circumstance, in a week, people will be behind bars and heads would roll. Are we saying that our lives are more valuable than the lives of the people of Solai? Does it mean that we have more right to live than them? Madam Temporary Speaker, when you go into the depth of our deliberations, it is clear that there is a very casual outlook by Government agencies, the county government and parastatals that are supposed to have taken this matter more seriously. This country is crying out for justice. The ordinary Kenyans in this country want to feel that they are as Kenyan as you are and that their lives matter, as much as the life of my child, as well as my life. It is for that reason that this Committee, for the last two months, has undertaken an in-depth inquiry. It is true that the Standing Committee on National Security, Defence and Foreign Relation, where I deputise the very able Senator for Garissa, Sen. Haji, immediately this happened, we went to the site to look at the rescue efforts and understand what we could do. Then, this House, in its wisdom, set up an Ad hoc Committee. However, for the last two months, we have visited the site, called witnesses and the relevant authorities and consulted experts. We have also not only spoken to, but also condoled with the victims of this tragedy. We can report to this House authoritatively, without fear of contradiction and with a clear conscience, that the Solai Dam tragedy was a manmade disaster that was a result of human negligence, criminal 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."
}