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{
"id": 904433,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/904433/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13131,
"legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
"slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
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"content": "spearheaded by the Matibas, Kibakis, Railas, Orengos, Muites, Nyong‘os and others. They fought a system that did not want them to survive. A few years ago, I was on a television debate as the Chairman of the TNA Party. On the opposing side was Prof. Anyang‘-Nyong‘o, who was then the Secretary-General of ODM. I had defeated him on many points in the debate until he asked me where I was in 1992, when they were fighting for multiparty democracy. I responded that I would have loved to be with them, but I was in Class Two. There was no way I would have been part of that struggle. The point that I am making is that every generation in this country has its cause. There is nothing more powerful than that which is in tune with its cause. The cause and season that we have today is that of uniting our people. Our country will not hold further. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, from the time that I was very young and growing up in this City, I would hear Kenya being hailed as an island of peace within a sea of turmoil, because of what was happening in South Sudan when it was still Sudan; Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and Somalia. We used to hold ourselves proud as Kenyans, because we host a United Nations (UN) agency, and that we were a country where the people loved each other. We had a mantra that President Moi had given us of peace, love and unity until 2007. We had small skirmishes in between. However, in 2007, we realized that what we had always called the ‗fabric‘ that holds our country together, is just one election away from being torn from top to bottom like the veil, when Jesus Christ was crucified. We are just an election cycle away from tearing each other up. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, some madness descended on our country when brother turned against brother, and neighbour turned against neighbour. We have had hate in our political life cycle in this country and we must question why hate dominates our political life. Why is it that when somebody else gets into power who is not from my community, we feel that we must hate them, or that we are doomed for the next five or ten years? Unless we ask ourselves those deep questions and go to the root cause, we are doomed. Since Independence, despite the issues that the other generations have had to deal with, have we, as leaders created, a Kenya where every Kenyan, no matter where they are from, feel as Kenyan as the other? What is the Kenyan identity? What does it mean to be Kenyan? Are we just over 40 million people who have found ourselves within certain borders, and because of our different ethnicities, we just need to get along; or is there an identity that we can create? I believe that every Kenyan, wherever they are and whatever they do, invariably want the same things; to go about their life peacefully, make something out of themselves and guarantee their children a future. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I Chaired a Committee in the last Parliament that was called the Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunities. Once we equal the opportunities so that Sen. Pareno knows that her child in Kajiado County has the exact same shot at life as Sen. (Dr.) Zani‘s child in Kwale; unless Sen. Murkomen‘s child in Elgeyo-Marakwet County has the same access to healthcare and school as my child in Nairobi County, everything that we do towards building cohesion cannot work. Until everybody feels as Kenyan as they are, cohesion cannot work. Unless you know that even if you study in Kilifi, Lamu or Mandera, you will get the same quality of education and the same chance at getting a job as anybody else, cohesion will not work. 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."
}