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{
    "id": 1491060,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1491060/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 177,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omtatah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "that being suppressed so as not reach the Christ. That is what is happening for many people who are disabled in this country. They have been denied the chance to move, the chance to be what they can be. So, when Christ tells the son of Bartimaeus that “your faith has saved you” as we read in the Gospel last Sunday, I am telling you that is what Sen. Asige is trying to do in this House. She is trying to ask society to allow her, and people like her, who have got various challenges, to be the best they can be. Most of the time, we push them aside, shut them down and deny them the chance to reach the promise that this Republic has. When you look at our National Anthem, that promise in our National Anthem should reach everybody, including those who are challenged. This should not just be a question of creating institutions and whatever, but institutions that are proactive, that go out before and identify people. They should not be institutions that wait for the people with the physical challenges, or physically challenged, to come to them. They should be able to go into society and identify these people. Right now, we know that many people associate physical disability not with natural causes, but sometimes with supernatural causes. They can claim maybe your parents did whatever, and even Christ was asked whose sin was it that a certain blind man was born blind. So, this stigmatisation that you can see in the Gospel is the same that we find in our people today in society. People hide their children because they have disabilities and deny them a chance to go to school. They do all these things. We need to come up with a law that will make the State go out into every home, into every heart and ensure that nobody is denied the promise of this Republic simply because they have got a physical challenge. With technology today, most of these physical challenges are totally overcome. I am telling you, we are in a generation whereby even people who have got a visual disability can drive because we now just have driverless cars. So, this aid and this tool should be able to come around. When we build our buildings, when we do whatever, we must make them friendly to address the question of physical disability. So, we are here at the call of history. We are here like in the days of the Prophet Jeremiah. Whom shall I send? That is the call Sen. Asige is asking us. Will this Senate say, here am I, send me by passing this very important Bill? Let us embrace and enrich this Bill. At the stage of public participation, the Committee that will consider it, must get very deliberate and go out and tap into the scientific knowledge we have around the subject. Invite people who have got knowledge around those issues so that we can come up with a Bill that is for the modern times. That is a Bill that will address future needs and aspirations. We even have Gen Zs who have got physical disabilities. The debate never came up for them. Nobody spoke out about Gen Zs with physical disability. We spoke about Gen Zs, who are physically enabled like most of us are, whom society leaves out. As I mention the Gen Zs, we are now getting into a state whereby the State is causing disability. We want to see a reduction in police brutality. We want to see a reduction in the way the State conducts its affairs so that we do not keep on maiming, killing and dismembering members of our citizens. 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."
}