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"id": 101407,
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"speaker_name": "Ms. Odhiambo",
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"legal_name": "Alfred Bwire Odhiambo",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I had already commenced moving The Counter-Trafficking in Persons Bill. I had given several reasons why trafficking in persons has become prevalent, including internal land conflict, especially the one we saw recently; poverty, flawed birth registration system in Kenya that has made a lot of children unaccounted for and undocumented and, therefore, makes them easy targets for trafficking; gender inequality and the low status that is placed in women; the incidence of HIV/AIDS, that has especially affected a lot of children and orphaned several; unemployment and growth in technology; trafficking for labour and the debt bondage; illegal inter-country adoptions and child sex tourism, especially in the coastal towns of Kenya. A research that I did in 2006 evidenced that a lot of children are got from rural Kenya and taken to the coastal towns of Kenya with the aim of being employed as domestic house helps, but instead end up being used as prostitutes. Many of them have no way or means to go back to their own homes, and many of them are threatened if they go back. This does not only affect Kenyan children; there is also trafficking of children from neighbouring countries, especially countries that have experienced turmoil like Sudan, Rwanda and several other countries. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is also the issue of marriage and mail order brides that affects a lot of our young women, especially in the coastal region of Kenya, who are promised that they will be married off to wealthy men, especially in the middle east. But many of them end up either as prostitutes or domestic helps, and are denied their passports and means of travel, so that they have no means of coming back to Kenya. As a country, we have actually witnessed a lot of cases that have been reported that affect women, especially in those countries. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also have cases of benefit fraud where many people take our children and use them for claiming benefits in other countries. For instance, in some countries like the United Kingdom (UK), if you have a child as a dependant, then you are entitled to extra benefits. So, you find that some communities take children and one child at one point will belong to as many as ten couples. They are moved from one place to another and the child will not be attending school. Earlier, I had given an incident of a Kenyan child who was taken to the UK and was trafficked illegally because they were not adopted through the Kenyan system. There was a case in the UK which even involved the Attorney-General of Kenya. The child was eventually returned to Kenya. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, of late, we have seen a lot of occultic practices in the country. Last week, when I started moving this Bill, Prof. Kamar had indicated that she had a personal interest because this is a big problem affecting her constituency. Unfortunately, she is not able to be here today. However, I want to table some documents that she has given me which are evidence of the presence of occultic movements within Eldoret. The documents that I have given single out a church that is called the Calvary Temple run by an American. A lot of attention has been put on that church but nothing has been done to stem the cases of forced marriages of our young girls in that church. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is not an isolated case, especially involving churches that are not very credible. I would want to note that I am part of a youth online group and one of them recently said that in Kenya, we have many people who come and want us to convert in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, save that we are not very sure which Jesus Christ we are talking about. In Spain and other countries, the name Jesus is very common. So, perhaps what these occultic groups are doing is saving Kenyans in the name of Jesus Christ of Spain and other countries but not the Jesus Christ of the Bible. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is actually a challenge for the Government of Kenya to take very decisive action against these occultic groups that are taking our children and marrying off in the name of religion. We must be very firm and decisive because as a country, we tend to treat anybody who comes in the name of religion with kid gloves, even when they are doing wrong things. When I worked in the children sector, I was personally called to investigate several cases that involved supposed churches where children have been trafficked and sexually violated, again in the name of Jesus. I do not know which Jesus or whether it is the Jesus of Spain. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, another reason we have trafficking is the issue of begging and hawking. We have many people who now use children to get money by pretending that the children are poor. I do not want to discount the fact that we have many poor children but many people now use that as a form of business."
}