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{
    "id": 1031337,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1031337/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 292,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": "Members left the Chamber almost calling for lack of quorum to defeat the Act. Most Members complained that we were introducing an Act when we were almost going for elections and that they were going to lose seats in their areas. It took the male folk in the House, and Hon. Sophia and Hon. Millie Odhiambo being so emotional in their contribution, for men to see the need to stop this vice. We had said that we were going to eradicate those issues in the new Constitution. Ordinarily, a Sessional Paper should come before the Act. We had the Act that was followed by the Protection against Domestic Violence Act in 2015. We know for sure that despite the 2011 Act and the Protection against Domestic Violence Act of 2015, the practice has been prevalent. Some of these things require more than just a law. As long as people believe in it, you cannot criminalize that culture. You can eliminate it through education and by getting a critical mass of stakeholders to talk about it. We have a law, but we will not get witnesses coming out to give evidence in courts on who did it. We have a law that is difficult to implement. Therefore, part of the rationale for having this policy is to catch up with the law and help in re-sensitizing people on the evils associated with this practice, so that even when administrative measures are taken to establish who will give evidence that FGM took place in a certain area, we will see the arrests. The frustration within the legal enforcement has been that grandmothers who encourage the practice are unlikely to come out and give evidence that they are the ones who take kids for that practice. The traditional surgeons who execute the ritual are unlikely to come out to give evidence that they are the ones who performed the act. So, this policy seeks to enable a paradigm shift. Let us just not focus on the law, but also focus on getting people to understand because it cannot be that in this day and age, 94 per cent of the Somali girls are being subjected to this uncouth situation. This has got nothing to do with education levels. If you go to Kisii – and it is not an illiterate community – 84 per cent of their girls get subjected to this practice. That tells you that the practice is more embedded in culture than illiteracy. There is no correlation between the literacy levels and the prevalence of the practice. In Maasai, the practice on girls is at 78 per cent and in Samburu it is 86 per cent. If you look at the statistics, you will see that even the communities expected to be highly religious engage in this practice because of their culture. What I like about this policy is that it recognizes that we cannot fight this practice through laws. It proposes the use a multi-sectorial approach involving many players. I know Members have talked about the chiefs not being the best people to do it, but they represent the Government. The chiefs and the Nyumba Kumi heads cannot do this on their own. It requires every person to be involved, including what Hon. Sossion said, having it included in the school curriculum. I am sure in the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC), those are some of the issues so that kids will start looking at their sexuality and personalities and avoid being harassed, and agitate not to follow what their grandmothers went through because they will be empowered. The policy recognizes the impact FGM has on gender inequality. I believe when women get empowered, the issue we have been talking about of gender top up… In the communities where the practice is prevalent, getting women leaders at all levels is a problem. Female Genital Mutilation is a tool that suppresses them. They never aspire to be at par with their male counterparts. They always play second fiddle. When we eliminate some of these cultural practices, we will get the gender parity that we are looking at on elective positions and at work places. It is important to note that Kenya has ratified a number of international legal instruments that address all human rights violations. We have the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966; the International Covenant on Economic and Social Cultural Rights, 1966; the Convention on Elimination of all Kinds of Discrimination against Women, 1979; the Convention against Torture and other Cruel Inhuman or The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}