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{
    "id": 1276526,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1276526/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 137,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Makueni, WDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Suzanne Kiamba",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to make my contribution on this very important Motion. First and foremost, it is important to realise that every Kenyan matters, more so children who find their parents in custody and are denied opportunity to grow up in families like other children. If you go to some of these areas, you will realise that there are families which have cycles of people going to jail. One of the circumstances is when a child is born and finds a very harsh environment where the parents are in custody, and some of them have to grow up seeing their mothers jailed. I even wonder whether when people are jailed with their children they should serve full prison terms because those are two people serving a jail term of person. It is important that we provide some funds so that such children, who are our treasure, can be brought up in a manner that is healthy and make them productive to this nation. I was very happy when I heard one of the Hon. Members talking about how sometimes we contribute so much to the hardware. Everybody wants a road. Everybody wants a school. Everybody wants this Government to spend money on structures that we can see. However, when we do not improve the value of people and the social fabric, we lose a lot. The issue of children of parents in custody is one of the areas where we are losing a lot. As a nation, we are as strong as our weakest link. Even if we continue to grow in families with a very big per capita income, but we have very weak areas where children are neglected, then we will have cyclic issues of families that continue to have people going to jail. This is because as you grow up having found your mother in jail, you also start appreciating evil because of that environment. This is a very important Motion and we need to support it. The other point I would like to put across is the psycho-social trauma. When the only guardian you know as a father or mother is in custody, and you are left on your own, the psycho- social trauma that affects such children sometimes denies them opportunity to ever become anything. This Motion is timely, and we all need to support it. When we support it, we support our nation, including the weak and vulnerable. That way, as a nation, we will advance because every Kenyan matters. I strongly support this Motion and thank the Member who has brought it."
}