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{
    "id": 1440442,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1440442/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 267,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Turbo, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Janet Sitienei",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. At the outset, I thank the Member for Kericho County for bringing this very important Bill. This Bill speaks to the challenges that are facing our society, including our parents in the constituencies and the country as a whole. Many of those children are actually victims of sexual abuse. A majority of the children who have dropped out of school and suffered sexual abuse are victims of relatives, adults, boda boda people and their own peers. The Member is trying to address the issue of the high number of children who are dropping out of school. In as much as the Ministry of Education has accepted that they should go back to school once they deliver, it is our responsibility to ensure that such children access education and complete their studies. It is also our responsibility, as Government, to provide pre-natal and post-natal care as well as education to a child parent. Children born by child-parents are a future generation that we need to keep healthy, protect and take care of. More importantly, we should be looking for preventive mechanisms. How do we stop this vice? We need to identify the factors that lead to those early pregnancies and early school dropouts so that we can address them. We should implement intervention programmes to ensure that the number of pregnancies or school dropouts are reduced to the minimum. That is a call to the society. We need to sensitise the society on upholding our moral values and go back to societal fabric to prevent those particular vices. If you ask for statistics, you will be really shocked. Many of the children who fall victim to sexual abuse and hence drop out of school are girls who are orphaned through HIV and AIDS, and are taken care of by grandparents who are elderly and poor. It is the vulnerable children who actually fall victim to that vice. The Member is trying to prevent early pregnancies. Once it has occurred, those affected should be catered for, protected and taken care of. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}