HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 219468,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/219468/?format=api",
"text_counter": 296,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Eng. Okundi",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 344,
"legal_name": "Philip Okoth Okundi",
"slug": "philip-okundi"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. The world over today, there are a lot of measures being discussed in Parliaments about the future of orphans and vulnerable children, who have come about as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In this Parliament, you know that we formed a Committee on Orphans and Vulnerable Children, which I have the honour to chair. There are a lot of fora in the world today discussing this same subject. What is required is that Government should decide budgetary allocation, which will support the orphans and vulnerable children, because many of them do not have homes any more, they do not have parents, they do not have means of support. This support is required to be a world-wide concern for many leaders and the countries that they come from. The Report has been tabled and it lists what happened in that particular meeting. I wish to thank our own Ministry of Home Affairs, headed by the Vice-President. His Ministry, through the Kenya Government, has proposed a budgetary allocation which has been approved, and which now is being utilised for cash transfers to assist those families, which are looking after the orphans and vulnerable children who, otherwise, would not have found how to survive for education, clothing, food, shelter and even transportation. I think we have to commend that, because it is a very good May 24, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1633 thing. I also wish to commend the action of UNICEF. It produced an initiative under which MPs in this country, when elected, would actually say what they would do about the plight of orphans and vulnerable children in their own constituencies. We did this and that is why the Committee was formed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wish to say that with the assistance of UNICEF, there was some immediate cash, which was given in order to produce an emergency response case in the plight of orphans and vulnerable children in our constituencies. The figures which were found were really insignificant, because the numbers of orphans and vulnerable children, which have come about as a result of HIV/AIDS, are very substantial. This country has to date orphans and vulnerable children in the order of 2.4 million. Of that figure, 1.8 million have been found to be orphans and vulnerable children who have suffered from the effects of HIV/AIDS. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is a very important subject, indeed, because we all know that the future of any country depends on how we develop our children, how we give them vision and how we create structures that will ensure that they become good leaders. There are many meetings going on around the world. I wish to commend AWEPA for conducting a number of seminars and workshops in Parliaments in Africa and Europe to address this specific issue. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move and request hon. Zaddock Syongo, who was also with me in this meeting in the Finnish Parliament, and who also represents this Parliament in NEPAD meetings, to second the Motion."
}