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{
    "id": 1440372,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1440372/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 197,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dagoretti North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Beatrice Elachi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "needed the father's consent or alternatively, she goes to court to file for sole custody of the child. With such situations, we need the law to be very clear, especially for Kenyan children. This is because we cannot force husbands not to leave their wives. This, sometimes, can bring trauma to a child. So, the Care and Protection of Child Parents Bill will assist in many things. International law and the Children’s Act have provided for that protection. I think it is a money Bill because there are issues that will come out and we have to look at them. This is a very important Bill that every woman in this House must support because it is going to help very many families that find themselves in this challenge. When children who have been in orphanages reach the age of 17 years, they want to know their identity. Those are some of the issues we are highlighting. As we provide for their care, both parents must agree on this matter. A child under those circumstances will choose the person he or she has lived with; a person who has taken care of them as the parent. They will not choose for parents people they have never seen. I hope that the Bill has provisions to safeguard such children. They may have a biological parent who may not have bothered about them, but have a foster parent who took care of them. In fact, nobody may know whether that is their parent or not. That is what the Bill should address because we have very many children today who are in that scenario. This Senate Bill, co-sponsored by Hon. Beatrice Kemei, also needs to look at the different laws that we have concerning children so that they do not overlap. This is to ensure that when one goes to court, the judge is supposed to refer to the Children’s Act although the Constitution always takes precedence as the principal law. We should ensure that we do not find ourselves in a court of law where many laws concerning children are quoted to give children their rights. So, as we debate this Bill, it is very important for us to look at the proposed amendments and see whether we can introduce our own amendments to enrich the Bill so that it protects the child. How do we ensure also that it protects a child who has also gone through a lot and is before a juvenile court and needs assistance? Let me give the example of the young man who beat a policeman. Nobody questioned whether the young man had his own trauma and was going through a lot. He could be a child to a single parent and we do not know what he is going through. We only castigated him. This is something that we are doing a lot to many children today as they grow. As a result, they are becoming more hardcore and aggressive in their lives in order to protect themselves. So, as we talk of the care and protection of a parent child, we must also address issues of parents. If, indeed, a parent has not stayed with their child for more than 10 years, they cannot just walk into the life of the child and say they have arrived. There must be a process and it has to be well stipulated within the Bill. I beg to support."
}