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{
    "id": 1150957,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1150957/?format=api",
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    "content": "Since I know where the Committee is coming from, I am sure it must have had a lot of discussions, especially from our different cultures. I am sure the Chairman also had the privilege to sit with us in one of the sessions where we were having experiences from different communities. For instance amongst the Luhya, if children are born out of wedlock, they are called outgrowers and must eventually be returned to their fathers. The same happens amongst the Luos. However, it is different in other communities. Amongst the Kikuyu children belong to the mother and yet under all the conventions and the Constitution what we check is the best interest of the child so that we do not subject the child to cultural standards. We provided very clearly under Article 53 of the Constitution that we shall not discriminate against children born out of wedlock. I was hoping that when we say we are amending the Children Act to conform to the Constitution, then this would have gone. However, we are bringing the same provision. So, let us not provide a standard different from children born out of wedlock, except if you are bringing differential treatment like my good friends from one of the Kalenjin communities gave us an example of a differential treatment which is good culturally. It is such that when you are coming into a home with children, then you are asked if you accept and if you accept you are allowed to have them and you never change. There is no reverse, but they are children born out of wedlock. That is positive differential treatment. However, you cannot provide a standard that is lower. That is why I am bringing this amendment that, subject to the provisions of this Act, the parents of a child shall have parental responsibility over the child on an equal basis. Neither the father nor the mother of the child shall have a superior right or claim against the other in exercise of such parental responsibility whether or not the child is born within or outside wedlock."
}