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{
    "id": 1031343,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1031343/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 298,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Homa Bay Town, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Peter Kaluma",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1565,
        "legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
        "slug": "george-peter-opondo-kaluma"
    },
    "content": "country – and I know we also have our Muslim brothers - we are this late in the day still talking about FGM. I have listened to the contributions today and most of the time, I was emotional hearing colleagues in this House talk about their experiences around FGM. I have listened to medical practitioners and the medical ill-effect of FGM. It has been so explicitly put. What I hear all Members saying is that there is no benefit at all to be derived from FGM. It is something that is outright repugnant. While seated here, I was looking at the Constitution and I am reminded of Article 2 which declares any culture which is repugnant or inconsistent with the Constitution to be void and invalid. We have that law, but we still engage in FGM. I have looked at Article 53(1)(d) of the Constitution which says that every child has the right to protection from harmful cultural practices or any inhuman or violent treatment. We have laws on robbery with violence. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you are a lawyer of good standing and you know how simple the law defines robbery with violence or attempted robbery with violence. You just approach me with a knife if I have any coin and you will be convicted of robbery with violence. How can it be that you approach a girl with a knife to take a part of her body and the deterrence measures in the criminal law around FGM cannot deter anybody? Let me say that we are approving this Sessional Paper. We will not be ashamed like previous parliaments because we now know the dangers of this practice. Now that we are approving it, I request the Committee to sit together with lawyers and other human and children rights advocates like Hon. Millie Odhiambo so that we can review this law in terms of having a punishment regime that can deter people. We need to firm up enforcement. Time has come for us to look at the girls and how they assist in this practice. In the Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security, we are thinking of how we can institutionalize the NyumbaKumi Programme so that we have a punishment regime and a law making it criminal by act of omission to permit such things to be happening in your area of jurisdiction. We need to review the law and go in that direction. We may talk and talk, but something worries me. I can tell you the most beautiful ladies are found in Kisii. I was a classmate to a Kisii lady, who was telling me that despite the law and her age, she still has to steal her way to get mutilated. There is no benefit from this practice. I am from a community which no longer cuts any part of the body. I think it is simply because the Bible was set in a desert. You know Jesus was essentially from the Arabian countries. As a Nilot, I live by the river and so, I am always clean. I do not even need to circumcise. Let us stop anything that hurts the human body. God made the human body and it is complete. We must up the political goodwill around this matter. I have listened to Members confess that in previous parliaments and, more so, in the 10th Parliament, they were saying: “If I move this Motion, I will lose votes.” We served this House in the last Parliament when we passed the new Marriage Act. I remember sitting next to a colleague from the Muslim community who started crying literally: “You people are saying we cannot marry a girl who is below 18 years, and I have a scheduled marriage on Christmas this December. I am taking dowry.” I mean, how silly can you be as a leader? Who are you leading? We are at a time when among the things the nation is mulling about is how we can review our Constitution to achieve gender parity. How will you achieve gender parity when you hurt the girl-child or when we have these retrogressive cultures which hinder the normal growth and development of a girl somewhere out there? What we have listened to here today means we cannot sit back again. Let this not be a discussion to just entertain the nation. As I have requested, let us put our foot forward. Let us encourage ladies out there, the ones in Maasai land being told they will not be married if they do not undergo this mutilation, to go to other cultures that appreciate 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."
}