Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 197742,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/197742/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 69,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bishop Wanjiru",
    "speaker_title": "The Member for Starehe",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 372,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Wanjiru Kariuki",
        "slug": "margaret-wanjiru"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, for that hallelujah. We pray that this will not stop at Parliament but it will trickle down. As one hon. Member said, the 30 per cent slots promised in Government positions and other opportunities will truly be granted and that this will trickle down to the girl child right at the grassroots. 162 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 13, 2008 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also take interest--- It is good to inform hon. Members that some of us, ladies, have just come back from what we call Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) conference in New York. Many laws have been passed to defend or to protect women. However, I would like to inform hon. Members and ask them to communicate the same to their constituents that an international law has been passed. I believe that very soon, it will come and find us right here in this Parliament. We have passed a law that outlaws any form of mental, physical or spiritual violence against women. We refer to it as zero-tolerance to violence against women. So, my brothers, let your constituents know that they cannot beat their wives any more. Women cannot be harassed politically any more. If the Kenyan laws do not take action, the international laws will take their course. Moving on to wealth creation, I have listened with interest to what we are saying. Many hon. Members have spoken about wealth creation. The Central Business District (CBD) falls under my constituency, Starehe. That is why I started by saying karibu, because even Parliament is within the CBD. The CBD is where the hawkers are. I cannot sit and watch hawkers being harassed. In his Speech, the President said that an atmosphere would be created where the vendor or hawker would work without necessarily having to do illegal business and without being harassed. We appreciate the fact that markets have been built, not many but just a few. I will take one as a sample case. I will take the Muthurwa Market which is in the other end of Kamukunji. The Minister has been trying to move hawkers from the streets to the Muthurwa Market. Do not mistake me. I am not trying to say that hawkers should remain in the streets. No! I do not want them in the streets either. I do not want them flooded anywhere including at the very door of my church. No! I do not want that. However, it must be understood that hawkers have never been involved as stakeholders in the creating or planning of markets. Nobody ever sought their opinion of the space that is needed. Therefore, the kind of space that has been created for one person is the same as that of the individual seats that we are sitting on right now in this House. I ask hon. Members to look at the seats they are seated on. How much wares can you sell from that seat? Assuming that the hawker is crippled or using a wheelchair, the wheelchair would take up all the space and that person would have no space to sell his or her wares. That is one of the problems. Secondly, those stalls are not permanent. The hawkers are not just looking for markets. They are also looking for permanency. They want to be established. They want stability. We are in Parliament today. If someone came and told me that by tomorrow I would not be in Parliament, believe me, I know how to rebuke devils, I would rebuke them properly. I would tell them that I am in Parliament to stay. None of us wants to be moved from where God has planted us. The hawkers within Starehe and other locations who operate within the CBD want stability. That applies to the whole country. Vendors cannot be ignored any more. So, let us create markets which can accommodate them. It also beats my mind; in this modern world, why would we waste space like what has been done at the Muthurwa Market? That is a waste of space. Why should we build"
}