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{
    "id": 1029889,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1029889/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 289,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kilifi North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13373,
        "legal_name": "Owen Yaa Baya",
        "slug": "owen-yaa-baya"
    },
    "content": "It is a fundamental right to have a birth certificate and ID. Your ‘Kenyanness’ should not be determined by other people, but by the fact that you were born here. Kenyans become stateless until they are registered. Statelessness is something that is very bad. You can imagine a child is born, goes to school and in class four the parents realise they need to register for an examination. Then they realise they have to prove the child is Kenyan so as to be entered into the NEMIS system. This means the child’s journey from class one to eight is a stateless journey. The child does not have a state because of lack of documentation. But if there is a database that shows that this child from birth is Kenyan, then the headmaster or principal does not need to send the child to call his or her parents or the chief in order to get a birth certificate. This will be at his fingertips from the database and the child will be registered because he or she has been provided with a number. The other point I need to emphasis is that in my constituency we have the Pemba people who are Kenyans, and I am not scared to say so. In this country, they have been treated as stateless people until such a time when politics is at its highest level. That is when there is a pronouncement from the State that they can be given birth certificates and IDs. Therefore, they become Kenyans for the purpose of voting in a government. But if we have a database, this child as long as he or she was born in this country and in a certain village, he or she is a Kenyan and is entitled to a birth certificate and a national identity card. You can imagine a child born in this country by a Giriama mother and his father comes from Pemba. Such a child will never get a birth certificate. However, any child born in the United States of America, irrespective of which country its parents come from, is entitled to a birth certificate. That is why we had an opportunity to have a Kenyan become President of the United States of America. The world has become a small village, but still we want to treat other kids as if they are not Kenyans and yet they were born in this country. If we have a database, it will be easy..."
}