Wetang’ula Hits Back at Gachagua’s Claims!

[00:00:07]Okay.

[00:00:09]Your Excellency, our president, Your Excellency, the deputy president, I'll follow the protocols as established.

[00:00:20]Your Excellency, today, like everybody else said, is a day like no other in the history of our country.

[00:00:29]We are here for a historic moment.

[00:00:34]And if I were in court, I would have told the judge after listening to Clarice, that my lord, she has said everything.

[00:00:46]I've nothing more useful to add.

[00:00:49]Because of the clarity and detail of her presentation.

[00:00:58]My distinguished friend, Professor Makau, you complimented what Clarice said very well.

[00:01:06]Your Excellency, the holy book, the Bible, says the beginning of healing lies in the acknowledgement of wrongdoing.

[00:01:17]And once you acknowledge that a wrong has been done, an adequate compensation or reparations or whatever we call it is done, society heals.

[00:01:32]The Bible also tells us the magic word in human relations is the simple word, "Sorry."

[00:01:41]That makes people appreciate that they have been wronged, and whoever wronged them acknowledges that wrong.

[00:01:51]This country, as we have been told, has gone through some very perilous moments.

[00:02:02]But we come here today guided by your patriotic feeling guided by our collective duty that we must heal our country.

[00:02:21]Your Excellency at the beginning of this month we were in Wajir.

[00:02:27]And I was really moved when I saw the governor of Wajir in the middle of his speech shedding tears.

[00:02:39]And I was very sure they were not crocodile tears.

[00:02:44]And he said he never believed that this could happen in northern Kenya in his lifetime.

[00:02:53]And it followed by your public apology to the people of northern Kenya.

[00:03:01]That apology alone in human relations is the greatest healer.

[00:03:07]That a wrong was done and a wrong is acknowledged.

[00:03:13]Today as we celebrate this milestone in our constitutional and legal history.

[00:03:24]I'm also one of the victims of violence at some point in my political journey.

[00:03:34]The story of Junet on how we welcomed Raila Odinga in the famous mantra of Baba while you are away.

[00:03:47]We were chased by the police brutalized along the way.

[00:03:54]And when we reached Uhuru Park along Haile Selassie Avenue a bullet went through my car.

[00:04:08]On another occasion, we went to University Way.

[00:04:14]You know that you remember.

[00:04:17]To demonstrate against what we thought was and believed was a non-responsive IEBC.

[00:04:28]And as we were being dispersed some excited policeman lobbed a tear gas canister into a vehicle in which Raila and I were.

[00:04:42]Raila was significantly older than me and he had serious difficulties breathing.

[00:04:50]I thought he would lose his life.

[00:04:52]Luckily, we had some water in the car.

[00:04:56]And I administered some first aid on him for us to escape.

[00:05:05]I like what Clarice said that at the end of the day is not paying some money to victims.

[00:05:15]At the end of the day is ensuring that we don't walk this dangerous journey again.

[00:05:24]And this will lie in clear legal framework.

[00:05:30]I want to encourage that as we move forward those of you responsible for formulating draft laws interior AG and others focus on one the need for education to our children right from primary on what human rights mean how you enjoy them, your responsibility to others as you enjoy them to have an orderly society.

[00:06:03]Two Those of us who have been in responsible positions of government, Your Excellency, if you go to New York for UN meetings from morning to evening there are groups of demonstrators and picketers across the avenue.

[00:06:23]There is no police attacking them. There are no objects being hurled at people.

[00:06:30]There are no obscenities being hurled at people.

[00:06:34]And they make their point and in the evening they go away.

[00:06:38]You go to the House of Commons across the road you are told come and demonstrate for 1 hour. You finish, you make your point, the others waiting to do the same.

[00:06:50]Because the act of demonstration is to make your point known not to disrupt life.

[00:06:56]So we want to encourage that a law should be in fact laws as Clarice proposed and when they come to Parliament we'll give them the opportunity and the time required so that everybody knows what you are expected to do in a situation of demonstrations.

[00:07:19]Otherwise, Your Excellency when we have a free-for-all a demonstrator leaves his house carrying a machete carrying a missile, carrying all manner of crude weapons, that is not a demonstrator.

[00:07:35]I allowed this day and I encourage my sister, the Chief Justice and all other law enforcement agencies to rise to the occasion and realize that this country can be kept in order and our people can enjoy their rights if we all play our responsible duties well. Thank you.

[00:08:02]>> [applause] >> Your Excellency