From the speech of the Kenyan minister of Lands James Orengo
Posted on | August 20, 2010 | No Comments
They say something different all the way over from Kenya???
MONDAY,AUGU ST16,2010// THEWASHINGT ONTIMES
A debate on the adoption of a new Kenyan Constitution took place in the House of the National Assembly of Kenya on Thursday, March 25, 2010. The Offi cial Report of that House, dated Thursday, March 25, 2010, copy available at https://www.scribd. com/doc/30293518, and recorded in the Kenyan government’s depository, Hansard- the offi cial source of printed transcripts of parliamentary debates-provides the details of that debate. One of the speakers (see pages 29-31) during that debate was The Minister for Lands, Mr. James Orengo. Ironically, and very applicable to us in the USA at this time, he expressed to the Parliament in open debate that “[i]f we do not live by the values and principles contained in this Constitution, all that is contained in this Constitution will be of no signifi cance….” He continued saying that Kenyans must follow the rule of law and especially the Constitution, stating that the “unmaking of Kenya began by disregard and non-compliance of the law. We ended up in a dictatorship that we had to fi ght for so many years….” He further explained that under the new proposed Constitution, the “Executive authority of the President … is derived from the people….”
He then continued to tell the Parliament that Kenya must overcome its problem of elements of its population excluding people from participating in Kenyan life because of their ethnicity or tribal affi liations. He asked that all Kenyans unite, regardless of ethnic or tribal affi liations, stating: “The
other thing that we are addressing through devolution is exclusion. What has made us suffer as a nation is exclusion. Once people feel excluded, even when you want to employ a policeman or constable or you want to build a dispensary, it must come from the centre. In the colonial days, these things were being done on the ground and they could give bursaries and build roads. I commend devolution. Those who fear devolution are living in the past. They are being guided by their ethnic consideration and objectives. They are living in the past. If America was living in a situation where they feared ethnicity and did not see itself as a multiparty state or nation, how could a young man born here in Kenya, who is not even a native American, become the President of America? It is because they did away with exclusion. What has killed us here is exclusion; that once Mr. Orengo is President, I know of no other place than Ugenya. That is why we were fi ghting against these many Presidencies in the past. I hope that Kenya will come of age. This country must come of age. People want freedom and nations want liberation, but countries want independence.”
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