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"id": 84949,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/84949/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Keynan",
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"speaker": {
"id": 41,
"legal_name": "Adan Wehliye Keynan",
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"content": "The role of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in conflict management is a critical aspect where there are conflicts. The UN alone is not enough. As we speak, this countryâs border with Somalia is officially closed, but that has not changed anything at all. Refugees are trekking in using all sorts of panya routes. There is no proper identification. One of the things I really want the Government to push as a policy is to ensure that the UNHCR registers all the refugees who are coming into the country, so that they have an identity document and somebody is known to be a refugee. Take the recent census, for example. I do not want to discuss the substance of this issue, because it is subjudice . The matter is in court. I want to take my constituency as an example. In 1997, there were less 12,000 registered voters. In 2007, there were close to 40,000 registered voters simply because the enumerators in all the earlier censuses never used to venture outside the four towns in the North Eastern Province. The larger Turkana District has been affected. The North Eastern Province has been affected. I am allowed by the Islamic tradition to marry up to four wives at any given time. As long as I live, they can even be 20 wives. Giving birth to many children is not criminal. That is why, on the issue of census today, some individuals in Kenya do not believe that the people of North Eastern Province can be over 2.3 million. Is that a crime. Whose business was it? It was the enumeratorsâ. The people there had nothing to do with it. Why should we criminalise our own community? Why should we criminalise a whole region? Is it a crime to be a nomad? Is it a crime to be a pastoralist? Where is the policy? Where is fairness? These are the issues we must address; issues of equity, fairness, constitutionalism and the rule of law have to become part of the attitude of the people of Kenya. This can only come once in a while. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as you know, we have not been lucky to handle the national resource âenvelopâ. I am glad that one of the former keepers, hon. Kimunya, is here. When it comes to the sharing of the national resources, we have suffered as a result of attitudinal discrimination. When it comes to donors, they are told: âNorth Eastern Province is inaccessibleâ. I want to, again, put it on record that today Garissa Town has been declared the safest town in Africa by the United Nations. However, people are still told: âYou cannot venture into North Eastern Province because that area is insecure.â If I want to go to my constituency today, I can travel tonight. It is safer than Nairobi and any other part of Kenya. However, because of the old traitors, we have been chained and yoked to think in the way we used to think in the1990s. Things have changed. I believe that is why some individuals have even advised His Excellency the President not to assent to the repealing of the Indemnity Act. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you know that in 1999, I moved a Motion, and Parliament accepted it. What we expected was just to say: âThis document is in orderâ and just repeal it without waiting for any Member of Parliament to bring an amendment Bill. We appreciate that Kenya must play a leading role in conflict resolution in Somalia. However, it should go on record that we will not support any attempt by the Government of Kenya to militarily get engaged in the civil war in Somalia. This policy must be accepted by all, because we all know what it means. Any other attempts, including giving logistical and material support, and mobilisation of resources, are within our realm. Those are the issues we must concentrate on. As much as possible, we must not get militarily entangled in the civil war in Somalia. That is one of the issues we noted. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the things which made us to go on this fact-finding mission was a belated attempt to use a section of the Somali leadership from across the country to come and recruit young Kenyan Somali people. Due to the high poverty level in that region, there were such attempts. The policy of assisting Somalia is within our stated policy of assisting the people of Somalia to reconcile. However, that does not mean that a section of Kenya becomes an extension of Somalia. This must also be appreciated. As a Committee, when we went round, one of the things we noted, and which we feel this House should also note is the fact that we are neighbours with Somalia. There is a problem in Somalia. Kenya is a responsible member country of the United Nations. Kenya is one of the leading nations in IGAD. Kenya is a leading light in the African Union. However, above that is our national obligation. Our national obligation is provision of security to the people of Kenya, provision of food to the entire population of Kenya, and giving the people of Kenya some sort of safety assurance as they go about their day-to-day activities. One of our recommendations to the Government is that any future attempts to reconcile the people of Somalia must be done under the auspices of either the UN or the African Union and IGAD, and should not become a Kenyan issue at all. Also, refugees must be registered at the entry points, and not in Nairobi or Garissa or Turkana. They must be registered at the entry points, so that when they come into Kenya, they are legally recognised because refugee camps enjoy a lot of international recognition. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thirdly, there are individuals who abuse the hospitality of Kenya. Those individuals should be arrested and taken to court. That is the only way we can say that there is the rule of law in Kenya. Another recommendation of the Committee is on the UN. The UN is not a government. It is an international organisation. To that extent, the UNHCR has international recognition because it is one of the arms of the UN. We should not be crying that these problems are as a result of the refugees. The UN must be proactive and help Kenya in managing the influx of refugees not only from Somalia but also from Ethiopia and Southern Sudan. That is the only way we can have a responsible group. Under the Geneva Convention, refugees have the same rights as the citizens of the host country as long as they have registered themselves as refugees, and hold valid cards at a given refugee camp. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will move on to the issue of indiscriminate suspension of the issuance of identity cards. The national identification card is a very important document in the life of every Kenyan. At will, without declaring an emergency, or without sufficient proof that there is an anomaly, the Provincial Administration officials in the North Eastern Province have constituted their own kangaroo courts. They just declare at will that the issuance of identification cards has been suspended. Why does it happen? That announcement itself is illegal. It must not be entertained in the face of our current Constitution. That is why I said some individuals live in the past, when North Eastern Province was governed in relation to issues that were purely historical. The dynamics have changed. The thinking must also change. The administrative culture must also change, because the legal framework has totally changed, simply because we have a very dynamic, progressive and fundamentally rich Constitution on human rights. That is the only way we can appreciate that, as a country, we are leading. The promulgation of the new Constitution has been celebrated and accepted all over the world. It is one of the things we can proudly say is a Kenyan initiative and a Kenyan-inspired document. Therefore, we should be proud of implementing it, so that Kenya becomes the number one adherent to the rule of law. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally, I want to ask the Government to conduct an audit exercise in order to establish the refugee population in Kenya, and so that we know how many refugees are in Kenya. Once that is done, the Government, with the help of the UN, should help refugees get legally recognised documents, and help them behave and do things in line with their refugee status. With those few remarks, I beg to move and ask my brother, Mr. Ochieng, to second the Motion."
}