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{
    "id": 1031346,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1031346/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 301,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emurua Dikirr, KANU",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kipyegon Ng’eno",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1453,
        "legal_name": "Johana Ngeno Kipyegon",
        "slug": "johana-ngeno-kipyegon"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. At the outset, I wish to support. I come from Narok County, an area that is considered to be very notorious for FGM. I also come from a constituency that is a little bit educated on matters of anti-FGM to the extent that, we have scaled down the number of girls who still undergo the practice to almost 2 per cent. Most of the people who practise this act will tell you it has good and bad effects but in whole, I believe what FGM does to our daughters and sisters has no comparative good effects that some people believe it has. There is something that I think we also need to address ourselves to. We may have laws that prevent women or young girls from being cut, but some of these people have introduced another mode which is very hard to curb; or even for the chiefs and assistant chiefs to deal with. Nowadays, people get married and they practise FGM in their homes. When those people who may want to arrest those women who have been circumcised arrive at the homes where those people live, the women pretend to be cooking and doing other stuff. It becomes hard to know whether they are circumcised or not. So, there must be a way of dealing with this matter so that we can curb it. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Deputy Speaker commented or touched on something that I believe we should also enhance in law. When you look at the percentage of girls who get lost or drop out of school because of FGM vis-a-vis the ones who drop out of school because of early pregnancies and marriages, early marriages have been overtaken by FGM. It is destroying our girls completely. When you look at the percentage of those girls who have undergone the cut vis-a-vis those who have gotten pregnant at an early age, most of those who get pregnant at an early age get lost, disappear, and lose their education, marriages and everything. In the same breadth, as we establish the proposed Authority, we should look at how it will curb early pregnancies. How do we deal with early pregnancies? There was an analysis which was done. I was wishing that most of the Members, and especially those who come from Narok County could look at this matter comprehensively. An analysis on how many girls have dropped out of school has shown that Narok County was leading in the whole country. Unfortunately, my constituency and the one that neighbours mine, Kilgoris, was leading in terms of girls dropout because of early pregnancies. I wish the arguments being used to address the question of FGM could also be used to address the question of early pregnancies. The early pregnancies in those particular areas are caused by the same people responsible for FGM – men who cheat the girls that they want to marry them. I am one of the few Members of Parliament from Narok County who took it upon themselves to educate people against FGM. I told them that there was a difference between votes and our girls. Let us educate our people to leave FGM regardless of the circumstances we are in. I believe if all of us are to take up this matter, we would finish this idea of FGM and, at the same time, clear out the issues of early pregnancies. Early pregnancies are destroying our society at a 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."
}