HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 895374,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/895374/?format=api",
"text_counter": 217,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13131,
"legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
"slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
},
"content": "not just the rhetoric, but the action from that Committee. We want to make sure that in public places and in public offices in this country, we ban the speaking of vernacular. Sometimes I am sympathetic to the words of President Moi, when he said that these radio stations and moving into our tribal cocoons will divide us more than unite us. I have been attacked severally for that position, but it is my position. In as much as we want to listen to Kass FM, when you leave your car after listening to it, do you feel more Kenyan or more Kalenjin? When you listen to Kameme FM--- I have gone to those stations and, in fact, during the campaigns, I had an advertisement in six of our ethnic languages. I can speak a few paragraphs of these languages. Therefore, when you listen to those vernacular stations, do you feel more Kenyan or do you feel more of your community? We must identify and create an identity that supersedes that of our communities. Madam Temporary Speaker, the reason why we are so tribalistic is that we have not been able, as a country, to define what the Kenyan identity truly is. That is why we move to the least common denominator such that even from those parts of the country where everyone is from the same community say, for example, North Eastern, they move to the lowest common denominator and now it becomes clannism. But then ask yourself what it means to be a Kenyan or a person born with heritage in this country, unless we define it for our people, then they will always go back to that cocoon. Madam Temporary Speaker, does Keny mean more to us? Is it that we were just stuck in these 582,644 square kilometers and we must get along? Is it that we have communities that are so different that there is no higher ideal? The late President Julius Nyerere did it in Tanzania. I have been there many times and Sen. Pareno has been there in the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA). Even in the most remote villages, inside a matatu, you will not hear anybody speak in their ethnic languages. Why is that so? It is because of what it does in case there is somebody who is not understanding that language. We must bring our country together. The challenges we face across this country are the same. A mother in Nyeri will feel the exact same pain when she cannot feed a child that a mother in Kajiado will feel. A father in Luo Nyanza in Kondele, Kisumu, will feel the same amount of shame and pain when he has to give up his daughter to a life of prostitution that a father in Kilifi County will. We have more that unites us in this country than what divides us. Madam Temporary Speaker, I am glad to be the Senator for Nairobi City County, where we have all these communities. I keep telling my people in Nairobi that there is no problem that faces the Kikuyu that is different from that which faces the Kamba. There is no pothole that is for the Luo; there is no shortage of water that only affects the Luhya. In fact, for us, we have said that we have only two communities in Nairobi; the haves and the have-nots; the rich and the poor. We must rally our people around that realization; that we will not go forward unless we deal with that issue. Madam Temporary Speaker, many times, I have told the President, yes, you have done a lot in terms of hardware; we have electricity, we have seen many parts of the country being connected to electricity; and we have seen the road network expanding. He has brought the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR); but that hardware cannot hold us together as a country. The 100-year-old railway was uprooted in less than three hours in The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}