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{
    "id": 1547717,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1547717/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 251,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Veronica Maina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "along the way. This is especially because of the legislative pathway which has to pass through stakeholders’ engagement and it has to be approved by public. I am happy that the now the courts have taken grasp of stakeholders’ engagement so that we now have some set parameters within which stakeholders’ engagement will become acceptable or not acceptable. We will eliminate some of the current processes that have been concocted to suit what one would call public participation so that we have quality participation that is then coming from the members or public that we represent. I have looked at the proposals that have been made by the National Assembly in respect of this Bill. They are not very fundamental in nature, but they have refined the draft that was presented here so they are definitely very welcome. When I look at the very purpose of the Bill that has come to the Floor of this House we must continue to applaud the effort. When I think of the journey the women of Kenya have walked through, it is similar with what the persons with disabilities have walked through in this country. We know how the women in this country have grappled with the question of inclusion. It is shocking that while women making up over 51 per cent of the population in Kenya yet we still have to really fight and grapple with. For more than 12 times, the Gender Bill has been an issue of inclusion in this Parliament. It brings a light to our day to see that another category of members who are excluded can now be included using this Bill of persons with disability. I am sure it will bring a smile to many people. I am thinking of all the persons in Kenya living with disabilities. They are close to four million voters in Kenya. They have been struggling to register themselves under the National Council for persons with disabilities. They do not even have quick access to that registration. I wish that chiefs could help them access that registration because sometimes they cannot even make it to walk to the places where they are supposed to be registered. That registration ideally needs to find them at home. Some of them are so severely disabled that it does not make sense to even tell them that there is an office somewhere where they are supposed to be getting that registration. That registration should be reaching them at the grassroots level or what we call mashinani . I want to single out a one of the introductions that has been made by the National Assembly under Clause 4 which has deleted the word ‘welfare’ and substituted it with ‘rights.’ Rights are correlative with duty. It gives an obligation to the person or the State. A right is very easily enforceable and definable within the law. The amendment introduced by the National Assembly under Clause 5 which exchanges the use of the word ‘welfare’ to ‘rights’ is a very good introduction to the Bill. It is an affirmation it is concretizing the fact that once it is named as a right in law then it has to be enforced. It is implementable because the court can even order for that right to be granted to the person who will be demanding under that right. I find Clause 26 very interesting because it is an introduction of a new Clause 26(1) indicates that every person with disability has the right to freedom of expression and opinion, including the freedom to seek receive and impart information and ideas. The 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."
}