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{
    "id": 1010010,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1010010/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 396,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kirinyaga Central, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Munene Wambugu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13382,
        "legal_name": "John Munene Wambugu",
        "slug": "john-munene-wambugu"
    },
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this chance to contribute and put my voice on this Motion. At the outset, I want to support this Motion and associate myself especially with what Hon. Millie Odhiambo, the Leader of the Majority Party and the Mover said. The issue of gender has been misconstrued not only in Kenya, but the world over where people have taken gender to mean women or the girl child. However, this is far from it. Gender encompasses every one irrespective of the organ which you have. We should not lament very much about where we are on gender issues because it is not only in Kenya. It has happened across the world and even as recent as 1960s or thereabout, women in America were not voting. They did not have voting rights. So, the world over has made strides. I think the beauty of this policy is that its purpose is to ensure that every human being irrespective of whether male or female has the same opportunity and equality. When you look at our Constitution, it talks about us being born equal with some alienable human rights that you should not deny a person based on gender. I am a proud father of one girl and two boys. I see all of them as equal, but it is because maybe I have been privileged to be exposed to see my children as equal. However, where we come from, for example, my constituency, which is quite exposed in terms of parity, depending on age, work is allocated to boys and other duties to girls. You are trained that a boy should not cry or he should do masculine work and the place of a lady is in the kitchen. So, even as we try to implement this gender policy, we should also change our cultural perception even when we speak as leaders and as activists. As the leader has said, there is this misconception that the boy child has now been overtaken by the girl child, but what have we been doing? We or activists have not stood strong enough to say that promoting women and girls’ opportunities does not mean diminishing or not supporting the boy child. I think the totality of this Sessional Paper is to create a just and fair society for everybody. It is only when everybody is regarded equally and given equal opportunity irrespective of gender, that our country is going to achieve development in terms of creating more wealth. Where I come from, women have organised themselves in women groups and through them, they are able to create wealth. So, it is a good thing when we encourage, support and put enough resources towards the attainment of gender equality. As a country, this is long overdue. The Committee has done a good job to come up with this Report which I want to associate myself with fully, and which I seek to fully support. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}