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{
"id": 868966,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/868966/?format=api",
"text_counter": 70,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
"speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
"speaker": {
"id": 129,
"legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
"slug": "james-orengo"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, before I come to the Statement itself, I commend Kenya and even the leadership in Kenya because one of the objectives of the merchants of terror is to change the way we live. They want us to live a life whereby we cannot operate as a free nation. Despite these major incidents since 1980, I think Kenyans have strived to live their lives the way they must. This speaks to those who want us to change our way of lives so that we probably become a police State, where every time you are in a public transport or moving from one area to another, you will meet road blocks and all manner of security operations that will make us change our way of life. Despite these heinous acts, the leadership in Kenya generally, even from 1980 to now, have strived to make sure that we live our lives in accordance with the spirit of our law, and in the spirit of what Kenya desires this nation to be. Mr. Speaker, Sir, my county was hit very badly because five people died as a result of this major incident. In fact, four of them were buried on the same day; and I managed to go to three of the funerals. Some of them were very young people. There was a lady who was working at the Dusit D2 Hotel; and a very popular young man known as Mr. Radido Cobra, who the people in my county saw as the true spirit of the Kenyan people. This is because at his funeral, nearly everybody from this Republic was in attendance. That community in Ugenya was able to show the love and solidarity of the Kenyan people when we are hit by this type of incident. I, therefore, commend the entire nation, because we came together, grieved together and fought together at this hour of need. The police and the security forces this time demonstrated exemplary leadership. All we can say is that if there can be improvement in the way they operate, it will be so much the better. However, on the basis of what happened on that particular day, even other nations commended our security forces and Kenyans as a whole. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we should be alive to the need to plan our cities and the need to have wide avenues and broad streets. This is so that when there is an incident like this, those who want to come to help have room for maneuver. You could see that the firefighting equipment, police and security vehicles and populations of people who wanted to help and who needed to be there, it was very difficult for them to maneuver so that help would be given to those who were injured and those who needed help. I hope that as we deal with the planning of our cities and towns, we should be conscious that, in the future, when there is need to get into areas to provide help or evacuate people, there will be sufficient space to do so. If you go to most areas in Nairobi and in Eastlands, and so on; an operation like the one which took place at No. 14 Riverside Drive would be very difficult to carry out because you will not be able to take help to those areas. Therefore, the city planners should keep this in mind so that when we are hit, people can get the help they need. This is a very important thing for us to do as quickly as possible. Mr. Speaker, Sir, terrorism should not make us profile ourselves. All Kenyans were hit in one way or the other. The exemplification of this was that even our brothers of the Islamic faith were also badly hit on that particular day. Terrorism is terrorism and terrorists are criminals who should be dealt with as such. Therefore, I commend Sen. Khaniri for bringing this matter to the House."
}