Gitobu Imanyara

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 5041 to 5050 of 6851.

• 8 Apr 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to second this very important Bill. It is one of these historic moments that the House does something that posterity and history will recommend them for when the history of this country is written. This day, when this Bill was moved with the promise of its passage in the House, will be remembered as truly one of those momentous days that have gone towards liberating this country. view
• 8 Apr 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we go through the process of bringing in new dispensation for Kenya under the new Constitution, one must always bear in mind that this has not just been a struggle in the democracy, it has been a police state; a police state where Kenyans could be taken from their homes and sent to detention under the infamous preservation of Public Security Act. People are sent to detention centres where people have died without any form of compensation and recognition. One realises that this is a country that does collectively take a whole community and sets ... view
• 8 Apr 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, unfortunately, this is a region that for a long time supported KANU regime. It is a regime that introduced this law that for so long treated Kenya citizens as second class citizens. I see my good friend, Mr. Haji who is a former Provincial Commissioner here, nodding his head. He knows how the Provincial Administration was misused by the then regime and the then Commander-in-Chief of this country to mistreat Kenyans. view
• 8 Apr 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is true. I am very proud to be a son of a soldier. That is why I have always stood against all forms of oppression whether from the military or civilians pretending to be commanders-in-chief like the one that ruled this country for 24 years and subjugated a whole community; telling them that they may not even speak about their own rights. view
• 8 Apr 2010 in National Assembly: So, one must congratulate the Mover for this Motion for seeing the necessity of reminding Kenyans that we cannot have a new Constitution and the TJRC in this country, when we have a law that is a bloat in our books. This is a law that identifies a community of Kenyans to subject them to second class citizenship status. view
• 8 Apr 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, not only was the entire community subjected to unfair treatment at the hands of the security forces, but also in terms of economic development. This region was subjected to terror tactics by the State. They were also subjected to very unequal economic disadvantages. Every year we are passing budgetary allocations in this House, when it came to North Eastern Province, these communities that were subjected to this, a very small fraction of development went to this region. It depended almost entirely on the goodwill of international view
• 8 Apr 2010 in National Assembly: 28 Thursday, 8th April, 2010(P) community or international religious organizations. Today, when we see the fruits of policies of the Government in terms of the sensitive political situations there; the demands of the people, we target them and say: “These people are just Somalis. They are bad tempered. They do not behave properly and they are not part of Kenya.” view
• 8 Apr 2010 in National Assembly: Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, that is the reason why the culture of impunity in this country is so deeply entrenched. We had public officers who took it upon themselves to remind an entire community that they were not part of Kenya. When we talk about the international community; when we talk about sending people to the Hague, if there were people who should have been the first suspects to be sent to the International Criminal Court, it is those who have governed this country under this law. They have documentation. When we talk about the Wagalla Massacre, it is nothing ... view
• 8 Apr 2010 in National Assembly: As a lawyer I can tell you of the many times I have had to go to the region to defend people under court martial. I can tell you it was even better to appear before court martial than to appear before civilian courts in that region. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I remember one time I went and the Provincial Commissioner was acting as a magistrate. He called me aside and spoke to me in my own language and warned me that if I raised certain issues he would not have hesitated to jail me because in that region the ... view
• 8 Apr 2010 in National Assembly: 29 Thursday, 8th April, 2010(P) Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, today, we are encouraging the former freedom fighters to fight a case. I am glad the Minister for Foreign Affairs is here because he has spoken strongly in favour of those people. Again, it is a matter of shame that this country almost 50 years after Independence when these people are at the sunset of their lives and when they need State protection in terms of getting pensions, all we can do is say we are supporting them to file a case in London to get what is justly theirs. The ... view