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{
    "id": 1440367,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1440367/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 192,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "There is freedom that has come with the empowerment of the girl-child. Are we taking care of that as a society? That is the issue some Members are raising. How shall we deal with the psychological, traditional and cultural orientation? Anybody below 18 years is a child if we are to take a strict legal definition. They should not get pregnant if the law was nature. However, the law is not nature. We are dealing with legal situations against biological ones. Those children will need much psychological support even before we start thinking of education. The impact is huge physiologically, physically, mentally, and even in their development, if they get pregnant. Some of them get pregnant before the maturity of their organs. That is a big problem. The greatest developmental impact will be on their education. They cannot go on with their education. This is where this Bill comes in. I support the aspect of finding a way for those children to go back to school. We come here and talk about their protection. We are now forced to protect two children: the mother is a child and the baby is a child too. We have now established centres where they are taken care of. Those children even give birth in the centres. So, the centres have become extremely complex. In terms of education, the most important questions that we should ask when we are dealing with this matter are: How do they get to school? What psychological and physical support do they need when they go back to school? We should also look for ways to support the babies because some of the children come from families that are disadvantaged and cannot look after a baby that is left behind. In the Bill, we have provided that, that can be done in the centres which are huge and complex. How are we going to set them up without money? Therefore, this must, first and foremost, be looked at as a money Bill. In my view, we need to re-look this Bill. I support it in principle, but if it is passed as it is, it will give us a lot of problems in its handling. We either need to redo and bring it up again or look at it in a much broader sense. But as it is, it is good in principle. It is something we should pursue, but not as it is now. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker."
}