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    "id": 1299829,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1299829/?format=api",
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    "content": "Most of them are not pregnant by choice, but because of sexual abuse. Maybe some of them went out to look for ways and means, for instance, to get sanitary pads and ended up pregnant. It is just an issue of discrimination after discrimination and injustices after injustices. They then find themselves in a situation where they require us, legislators, to stand up and push for legislation that is going to protect them. As I second this Bill, I highlight the fact that when we speak of child parents, most of the times, we are only talking of girls. However, sometimes the teenage pregnancies are as a result of what in your legal sense you call Romeo and Juliet, as a result of boyfriend and girlfriend, who are underage. We do not talk of the boy-child in this instance. However, there are many situations where even the boy child is castigated and sent away from the community or institution. This is also a reminder and the reason we do not call it a teenage girl’s Bill, but Child Parents because it exists in girls and boys as well. Therefore, this Bill is not just there to protect the girl child, but also the boy child in the event that both happen to be under the age of 18. Their rights to education, health care, to proper information, to being able to continue with their lives as a child should be protected, but with the understanding that they are now parents. Madam Temporary Speaker, I now highlight a Clause where we are proposing that the county governments look into the issue of the care of children within a care centre. Once the teenage girl or the child parent has delivered that child, we put expectations for them go back to school to pursue their dreams, just like they would have had they not become pregnant. What happens to the baby? It is known that once you give birth, as a parent you are expected to breastfeed for six months or more and be a caregiver of another child. As we are saying, you have the right to readmission to an education institution, we also want to bring the national Government to look into the issue of the care centres. Let me highlight PART V, Clause 32(a) of this Bill where it states that - “In delivering child care services under this Act, a licensee shall ensure– (a) that there is established a system for sharing with parents, information on matters that may affect the children cared for in the care centre.” Sorry, let me just backup that a little bit. PART IV is on Establishment of Care Centres. Clause 21 (1) says – “A county government may establish and maintain such care centres as it may consider necessary for the care of children of not more than three years of age.” A county government may for the purposes of Sub-section (1) establish care centres in or within the vicinity of an institution of basic education and training in order to ensure access to such facilities by a child parent. Madam Temporary Speaker, these care centres that have been existing sometimes require parents to produce an Identification Card (ID), which a child parent is not able to produce. Therefore, it becomes difficult for a child parent to take their child to that particular care centre. For this Bill, some of those regulations in their care centres should"
}