Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 949134,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/949134/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 329,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kisumu CWR, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Rozaah Buyu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1950,
        "legal_name": "Rozaah Akinyi Buyu",
        "slug": "rozaah-akinyi-buyu"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to speak on the issue of Saudi Arabia. I listened to that report being moved. We know much about cases that have been reported about young people who have gone to Saudi Arabia to seek employment. Some of them have been reported dead. The mandate of the Committee, therefore, was to go and investigate the welfare of Kenyan workers in Saudi Arabia. The report is totally in conflict with what my expectation was. I speak knowing very well that the young people of Kisumu County, just like other young people in the rest of the country, are faced with the problem of dire unemployment. I speak for young people from Kajulu, Seme, Kano, Kolwa and Nyakach, who are educated but are faced with unemployment. I will be the first one to support any employment opportunities for our young people. We know that 70 per cent of our population is comprised of young people and we know that 80 per cent of those young people are not employed. We also know that an idle mind is the home of the devil. When you are educated, you have enhanced aspirations and hopes and if you are not able to satisfy that through employment, obviously, you will get into other social ills that are not good for the society. I value the lives of all Kenyans. I value the lives of unemployed youth. Just to solve the issue of employment, I will not exchange their lives for employment in Saudi Arabia or any other country for that matter. We also know that the prime responsibility of the Government is to protect its citizens. We know that whether the people who go to Saudi Arabia to seek employment do so legally or illegally, they still remain Kenyans and the Kenyan Government has the sole mandate and responsibility to look after them and protect their lives. The report clearly indicates all the glossy measures and all the steps that Saudi Arabia has taken to ensure that anybody who seeks employment in that country is well protected. However, my question is: if we have all those stringent laws put in by Saudi Arabia, how come we have so many Kenyans losing their lives and crying foul anytime they seek employment in that country? For that, I oppose the Report and I request that we all oppose it and give that Committee an opportunity to come back with a better Report. I am also convinced that when the Committee went to Saudi Arabia, they did not do due diligence according to the mandate and objectives that they set out to work on. Instead, it looks to me that the Report they are giving us is a glossy report that has actually been written and documented by the Saudi Government itself. The question still begs: what is the welfare of our The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}