National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula has hailed his mother as a resilient woman for raising 14 children while he acknowledged the place that women play in the social, economic, and political spaces as the world celebrates the International Women’s Day.
“Today is an international day for women, and I stand here to salute the great woman in my life, my mother. She is 93 and still living,” he said.
The Speaker spoke at the National Museum of Kenya where he was the chief guest at the launch of the 5th edition of the People’s Dialogue Festival, where women took a centre stage.
The aim of the 5th edition of the People’s Dialogue Festival which runs from Wednesday, March 8, 2023, to Friday 10, is to bring together Kenyans from all walks of life to dialogue on leadership and growing the democratic space while addressing pressing issues such as the tax burden and debt and the current political duels and whom they serve.
“I encourage all political players on either side to often come together and engage in dialogue since the hunger that is ravaging Kenyans today has no selection of political affiliation, the runaway poverty is not selecting people of a certain political affiliation and that is why we must come together to talk. It’s for all of us.
“The most difficult issues we face in life, whether as families, organizations, societies, nation-states, or human beings, cannot be resolved by individuals acting alone, by elites acting autocratically, or by factions acting in their own distinct and exclusive self-interest.
“We need dialogue because without it we drift apart, our differences become untenable, our fears grow palpable, and our distrust circles without end. We need it because the smallest human unit is not one, but two; because it is how learning happens in all relationships; because it invites us to open our hearts to each other and to ourselves; because it resets our priorities and reveals the beauty and symmetry of our differences.
“As an approach, dialogue will help build trust and the political will for change, both of which are critical in a country on the path to democracy and where difficult decisions need to be made. Cooperation not only between political parties but also between other state and non-state actors is vital to ensure that democracy becomes deeply rooted, going beyond the electoral competition. Political parties as key aggregators of citizens’ expectations, mediators between citizens and the state, and principal players in the democratic game, need to have the capacity to both compete and cooperate,” part of his social media post read, shortly after Day 1 of the event.
In his speech, Wetang’ula emphasised the need for dialogue and reasoning together while addressing the current political situation in the country noting that the problems facing the country such as hunger, have no political affiliations.
While addressing the tax burden, he recognized that President William Ruto already made a commitment to reducing the debt burden while acknowledging available channels for conversations with donors.
