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{
"id": 1014316,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1014316/?format=api",
"text_counter": 207,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nominated, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Prof.) Jacqueline Oduol",
"speaker": {
"id": 13514,
"legal_name": "Jacquiline Adhiambo Oduol",
"slug": "jacqueline-adhiambo-oduol"
},
"content": "across. It is not just for the Departmental Committee on Labour and Social Welfare, the Departmental Committee on Communication, Information and Innovation and the Departmental Committee on Education and Research. I would like to address an area and a ministry that I notice was not in any way addressed, the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage. If we look at what is happening and the three critical areas, we will see that the tendency is to just let our young people get access to reproductive health information and in a number of cases, enable them to see that this is their right. I do not deny that we need to have information timely disseminated. I am of the view that, as a House, we should not only look at issues of legislation, but also seek to offer oversight and represent the voices of those that we serve. We would like to deal with the plight our teenagers face. A number of them are going to get access to reproductive health information and they will not be able to deal with the responsibility that comes with it. So, as I appreciate this response, I would like to urge that it is only the Government that has a framework with outreach capacity. The Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expression Act, 2016 seeks to ensure that, we, to the extent that is relevant, use traditional knowledge to solve problems. My humble submission is that as we deal with this crisis of teenage pregnancies, we do not let the matter rest on policy and spend time and resources on inter-ministerial working groups that observe. We should not stigmatise teenagers who find themselves in the way of families, but look at how we are equipping their parents. In my experience as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender, Children, Social Development, parents had a major cry. They asked why, we, as the Government were allowing NGOs to put our children in places where the only thing they think of is their rights and sometimes when they talked about their rights, they were not clear of what their responsibilities were. I want to urge the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Labour and Social Welfare to see if there can be a thinking outside the inter-ministerial working groups to allow parents to have a sense of skills that would not just be based on guidelines that, unfortunately, are only policy based or informed by foreign ideologies, but to also look at the opinions that elders and grandmothers have. I thank the Chairman and appreciate the effort of the Committee. I am particularly happy that the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection has recognised that they need to enhance positive parental skills and nature and protect children from exposure to sexual abuse. I want to inform the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection that there is a breakdown of values. Some teenagers are getting impregnated within their families by their relatives. This is something that is not discussed because it is considered a taboo, yet it is a real reflection of the way the social values of our society have broken down. As a Member for County of Siaya, a county that has a joke that if you throw a stone, it is likely to land on a head of a professor or a researcher, I have listened with concern to Members. I want to express great regret that we can have a situation where a research report is tabled and it has not met research parameters. However, I am always a student and sometimes sitting in this honourable House can make you have a changed view of how research is interpreted and the relevant parameters to be followed in research. Therefore, I want to express deep regret in the manner in which Infortrack came up with their research and I appreciate the guidance that you have given on the same. I hope, as we sit in this House, we will remember that the kind of research that takes place in the academia and in other places may not be necessarily appropriate in a political context like this one. Thank you."
}