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{
    "id": 1060597,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1060597/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 185,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "So, this Bill has come at the appropriate time. I thank Hon. Kaluma. The whole essence of it has been around the definition of a spouse, marriage and dependants. This Bill actually addresses those adequately to my mind. In the definition of dependants, it has been assumed that husbands are not dependants of wives until proven otherwise. As you are fighting for the gender rule, time has come that we also have to accept the reality that many men are actually dependants of their wives and justifiably so. They sometimes support the wives in their pursuits. So, it is important that, that is taken into consideration. When you look at polygamous marriages, again some wives have actually been deprived. Their children have been deprived of their livelihoods and again it is because of the definition. Other people who have been dependants of the deceased… Although other Members are saying that when I was supporting you in my lifetime and when I go, then you are now on your own, the reality in life is that there are some kinds of support and privileges that a way should be found of supporting such people when circumstances change such as the death of a person. Therefore, this Bill has actually made very appropriate definitions of a spouse as a husband or a wife or wives and that has come out very clearly. It has also defined very clearly to my mind who the dependants are, although some of us are saying that we have put many dependants like brothers, half-brothers, grandparents and parents. However, in reality in our society, grandchildren and parents are dependants of people and when the person who they are dependent on dies, it is not fair that one person now decides that all these people who were dependants have to go and that it is mine alone. That is not fair and the recognition of this in this Bill is an important point. Hon. Deputy Speaker, I also like this Bill because even those who may claim that they were dependants have been given a reasonable time. You have to prove fairly distinctly that over a period of time, you were a dependant. So, to some extent, nobody has actually been left out. Things have been made fairly clear and it is my hope that when this Bill is passed – and I urge colleagues to pass it – and it becomes an Act of Parliament, the court will find it useful in actually shortening the long periods and sufferings that people go through; the disruptions of very solemn moments in peoples’ lives. It brings the enmities that come between families particularly offspring sometimes even resulting in death when people are fighting over property. With that, I support this Bill."
}