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{
    "id": 718210,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/718210/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 154,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Ombaka",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1007,
        "legal_name": "Christine Oduor Ombaka",
        "slug": "christine-oduor-ombaka"
    },
    "content": "Winking is very common in the streets and marketplaces. These are sexual offences. They must be included in this Bill. It is very critical. Sexual offences are very rampant in this country. The victims are normally infants: two or six-month olds, helpless children, little girls. Sometimes you have sexual offences committed against people living with disabilities; even old women. As long as people are helpless, they are seen to be weak, they tend to be abused. This is the category of human beings that are often abused. We need laws that will strictly punish perpetrators. I think this Bill does that very well. I support these clauses. There are also other parts of the Bill that have been well done and I support them, particularly the section where the police do investigations. This had never been done very well. They give up along the way because of various out-of-court discussions and agreements. Even the very fact that the offence is sexual, not many people want to pursue the matter because of the shame and fear that it entails. Many victims do not pursue the matter so that they get proper justice because of the fear and shame that the society associates with these crimes. Therefore, a lot of victims suffer silently without seeking justice. We need to encourage them a lot because so much damage is always caused when a person is sexually offended. There is psychological trauma that a victim goes through for years on end; sometimes for life. They will always be regarded as people who were offended for many years and they can never settle in society. We need to put proper interventions for them. It is also true that perpetrators of this kind of violence go scot-free. It is very sad when a three-year-old girl has been sexually offended and the perpetrator goes scot-free. It looks really unfair for the little girl who may not know what has happened to her, but the perpetrator is much older and goes scot-free. It is morally wrong, and laws must be put in place to punish those who offend the little girls. That is why the amount of Kshs500,000 set here may be little for those who have the money, but it is quite a lot for those who do not have jobs in the village; they cannot get this. This is going to be a good deterrent to those perpetrators. They must know that there is punishment at the end of it all. There have been very difficult ways in which to find whether one is guilty or not. We talk of semen, we get that semen and we get the DNA. But what of a case where there is gang rape? That has not been captured well here. What happens where there is gang rape? Whose DNA are you going to take and there are many people involved in it? Whose semen are you going to take? What is going to happen when a case of gang rape takes place? That is quite a challenge even within this amendment. We need to define and be very clear on what is going to happen in case of gang rape. Finally, the intervention is also very important when it comes to HIV/AIDS. I remember in the early 1980s and 1990s there was a lot of public education and sensitisation in schools, The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}