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{
    "id": 1368033,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1368033/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 213,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "find spaces to play and be children. They are proper places where the optics, painting and graphics makes it attractive for children to come. I think they have even gone ahead to provide meals so that these children are attracted to those centres. The childcare centres proposed here must be an integral part of the early childhood centres. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, if in our Constitution, we have made abortion illegal, except in the opinion of a trained professional, or in cases where the life of the mother is in danger in the opinion of a trained professional. If we criminalize children having children, we will push them into unsafe abortion and practices. If we close the doors to children who have had children not to go back to school, we will push them to early marriages. Therefore, we will condemn them perpetually. It was easier for our mothers to be married early because society was different. We are in a different world now. Research has shown that the children whose mothers have access to education, perform better in life as opposed to children whose mothers have not had access to education. Therefore, if we are going to build an equal society, then this framework through which an expectant girl-child or a child-parent can actualise their right to basic education, is one of the most important Bills that the Senate can deal with. This Bill makes reference to child-parents to include child-fathers. That is a bit dangerous because a child-father is an offender under the Sexual Offenses Act. The minute you are the father to a child of a child, you are an offender. I hope that this Bill is not going to legitimise and rewrite the Sexual Offenses Act. So, to be honest, the Sexual Offenses Act must also be looked at so that certain definitions are brought up to date and made relevant. I know it is one of the most emotional pieces of law to talk about because there is nothing worse than--- Sexual offence is as bad as a war crime. Few offences within humanity are as gross as a sexual offence. They include rape, those things that happen in war situations that affect breaching consent and inflicting pain and doing those things that have been defined in the Sexual Offense Act. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when we get a child who has had a child with a child, why should we lock them up in prison? Why? We need to rethink those provisions of the Sexual Offences Act. A child who has had a child with a child does not need to go to prison. He does not need to go to a borstal institution or to be forced to marry that child. Society must come up with means; society must come up with procedures for integrating and developing those children. We have seen in certain cases where rich powerful men live in exclusive neighbourhoods with children who are fairly locked up in a controlled environment. God forbid, you have a gardener who perhaps is a child under 18 years old and engages in certain relationships with the daughter of the boss. I think there is one Kenyan novelist who wrote a story with that kind of plot. If that matter gets to the police, the parents of the rich girl will make sure that the poor gardener, who made the rich man's daughter pregnant, rots in prison. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}