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{
    "id": 938262,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/938262/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 160,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "former Members of Parliament. The immediate former Member of Parliament for Rarieda, Hon. Nicholas Gumbo, attempted to bring an amendment to the House to amend the Act to allow the former Members of Parliament, who were numbering around 500 then, to get, at least, Kshs100,000. Unfortunately, Parliament was adjourned before this Bill was debated. When we resumed in the 12th Parliament, I was approached by those former Members of Parliament. Because this is something I have been following, I accepted to sponsor this Bill to the House. I want to mention the following. Looking at the numbers when this debate started, around 2009 when the Report was being adopted, we had close to 500 former Members of Parliament. I hear as we speak today that number is less than 200. In fact, it is being said that the number is about 150, meaning that those former Members of Parliament are dying at a fast rate. One of the reasons we are seeing a high rate of death - even though, yes, some of them could be aging - is because of the suffering that they are going through. Some of those former Members of Parliament cannot even afford medication. I have seen some of them. Someone like Otieno Mak’Onyango, if he did not get the payment from the Government following his torture, I am sure we would not have him today. Hon. Otieno Mak’Onyango has really suffered. He has been ailing but for him to buy medication, he needs something. The list is long. I cannot mention them by name. However, there is a former MP from my region who is unfortunately and sadly so, the late. The former MP served between 1997 and 2002. There was a time when he came to our area for a fundraising. I could see the way he was treated. We were expecting a senior Kenyan to come and grace an occasion in our place. We were prepared and people sang for him. One day, as I was driving along Uhuru Highway just at the junction of Uhuru Highway and Haile Selassie Avenue, I was stopped there by the traffic lights. There was a matatu and a gentleman was getting out of it. You know how matatu crews behave. They kept on telling him to disembark quickly, and the former MP got out of the vehicle. I saw him walk across the road. I could see that he was tired. I saw poverty. I am not saying that those are the only people who are suffering economically in this country. Many other Kenyans are also suffering. This tells us that we need to think seriously about the plight of our aging population. Everywhere in the world, people think about their senior citizens. In fact, they are so recognised and treated with dignity that you would think they own the country. However, in our country, the only thing we have succeeded in doing – and I think it is also because we have not managed our economy well – is to give a stipend of about Kshs2,000 to those who are 70 years old and above. It is high time we seriously thought about former MPs and gave them something so that those who are still alive can also appreciate that there are some people who know that they made a contribution to this country."
}