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{
    "id": 101433,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/101433/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 249,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Baiya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 8,
        "legal_name": "Peter Njoroge Baiya",
        "slug": "peter-baiya"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I, personally, have an experience in my constituency of this kind of crime. It happened in 2007 where a primary school girl went missing. She was a 14 year old girl. Subsequent investigations revealed that she has been lured from her school. This was done with the involvement of the school administration and local administration. She was ultimately taken to a school in a far place without the involvement of her parents or family. She stayed there for a couple of months. Some people happened to be known to her and the alarm was raised, forcing a public outcry and she was released. Further investigations reveal that in the same institution she was being held, other children would be brought in pending trafficking to various places of the world. This is happening in Kenya. The holding institution is here in Kenya, somewhere in Narok. We are not talking about far-fetched things when we talk about human trafficking. It is there. It mainly involves young girls with the motive to engage them in prostitution and sexual exploitation. Trafficking is done by foreigners and cartels that have local people. It extends to countries in Europe. All this has been covered in the Press. As I tried to pursue this matter in my constituency, it came to light that there was no specific criminal offence with regard to human trafficking. That is why I am congratulating the Member of Parliament who has brought this Bill to ensure that we cover this loophole in the law. I have also participated in meetings especially in the Great Lake region in an organization that covers issues related to gender-based violence. One of the gaps that has been identified particularly relating to women rights is this one about human trafficking. As I said, human trafficking affects not only young girls, but also young boys who are forced to join militias in war situations. These boys do not understand the full implication of war. So, this Bill is important because it is going to cover and protect potential abuse of such young Kenyans. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other aspect in this Bill is that it criminalizes these offences at a time when socio-economic situation in our country is such that we have many young people who do not have employment and are victims of poverty. In many cases, they are vulnerable to promises of opportunities abroad. Often, they are made to believe that the opportunities will be very beneficial and yet the intention of those making the promises is to abuse and defraud them so that they can facilitate the trafficking. Even though our people are poor, we must make sure that our law safeguards them against exploitation from such would be exploiters of our situations. I also think that this Bill will fill one of the gaps in terms of human rights and ensure the full protection of women, children and any person who may suffer exploitation through trafficking and so on. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for those reasons, I strongly support this Bill."
}