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{
    "id": 1157125,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1157125/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 355,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mwea, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Josphat Kabinga",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13441,
        "legal_name": "Josphat Kabinga Wachira",
        "slug": "josphat-kabinga-wachira-2"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Again, I have no hard feelings on that. This Bill should be taken very seriously by this House. It concerns our children. It comes at a time when the country has had a lot of challenges with issues of children. This is a sector that has been dogged by a lot of interests, as Members who have spoken before me have alluded to. This is an area where my Committee took a lot of time to not only engage various stakeholders but also to make physical visits to various facilities. Some of our findings were really shocking. We went to some children’s homes and remand centres managed by the Government. The findings and what we heard from various stakeholders is shocking. My Committee has decided to stand very firm on issues to do with children. I know attempts have been made in the past to streamline children services in this country. I know there have been a lot of challenges here and there. People do not work together. Non-state actors have taken over the running of children affairs in this country. My Committee has decided to be firm in the way we handle children’s matters. If you look at the kind of amendments proposed after listening to various stakeholders, you will see that my Committee took this issue very seriously. At times we were retiring at about 11 O’clock in the night. We were still going through various amendments that were presented to us. We decided not to ignore any. Consequently, I can say without any fear of contradiction that the Committee has all the information that it requires to push this particular Bill through. There are some very important issues that we dealt with as we reviewed this Bill. One of them was on the area of adoption. I do not want to repeat what Members have said, but it is true that adoption has been used in the past as a conduit of trafficking and mistreating children in this country. As a result, we dwelt on the issue very intensively. We also considered the moratorium that was put in place, why it came about and why the Government decided on it through a Cabinet directive. We also looked at improvements that may have been made since the moratorium was put in place. I know there are amendments that will come in this area. Even as we debate here, there are many people who are watching and listening to us simply because there is a lot of interest on the matter. We are determined to move on as a Committee. We decided to retain the moratorium on the basis that the country has not fulfilled some of the promises that were made to allow us to go back to international adoption systems. The other issue that we dwelt on is to do with children’s homes and care institutes. We reviewed the policy on the same. The policy is very clear that over time we should phase out children’s homes in this country. We looked at the policy and listened to stakeholders and we made recommendations on the same. We need to move to family care over time and do away with children’s homes. That recommendation is contained in our Report. But we also looked at the realities of the same and the Committee decided that we cannot and we will not close them down immediately. We have recommended a period within which we should phase them out so that we engage in family care. In doing so, we did look at various case studies, including Rwanda and South Africa. We looked at how these countries have gone about the issue. It is true that while Rwanda has stopped inter-country adoption, South Africa reopened the same after they were able to develop a clear legal framework through which one can see how the process is undertaken. I wish Members would take time to look at our Report. Those case studies are attached to the Report. Rwanda is still closed because they have not built the capacity to deal with international adoption, properly documented for the future of the children of the country. That is an area that attracts a lot of 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."
}