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"speaker_name": "Mr. Khamisi",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I would like to congratulate Mr. Wamunyinyi for bringing this very important Motion to this House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I get the impression that psychology, in general, and counselling, are not popular in this country. We know very well that in developing countries, this is a discipline that has always been practised. It continues to be practised and is included in the day- to-day activities of many countries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to join hon. Members who have proposed that this discipline be in place in all our institutions. We should have counsellors in both the Government and private sectors. We should also have a counsellor in an institution like the National Assembly of Kenya. Hon. Members work under tremendous stress not only when we are here, but also in the constituencies. It is, therefore, important that they benefit from counselling. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in our prisons, we have tens of thousands of people who are jailed for minor offenses. These are offenses that could have been very well treated through counselling. In jail, we have mama mboga or hawkers; men and women jailed for being in possession of chang'aa . These are not criminal offenses. These are social offenses which could be treated if the offenders are properly counselled. They should be guided in the direction of being good citizens of this country. We are jailing people who should not be in jail. I would like this proposed Bill to take into consideration the social behaviour of our people. Our people go through a lot of trauma. Poverty levels continue to go up. We have growing unemployment in this country. Those of us who work with rural communities, notice that the rural folks are constantly under stress in their day to day activities. I think that these people should be taken into consideration in the drafting of this Bill. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to bring to the attention of the House the growing anti-social behaviour in this country. This behaviour will in future pose a danger to this nation. I am talking about homosexuality and lesbianism. Only a few months ago, in the centre of this town, we witnessed a demonstration of this anti-social behaviour. These are young people, some of them are college educated, others come from very affluent families. They seem to have lost direction in their social well-being. I think it is the job of this Government, through this proposed Bill, to see how to help these young people to come out of this anti-social behaviour and become good citizens of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, homosexuality and lesbianism is a growing phenomenon in our schools. We have read about many cases of high school children who start and practise this behaviour in those institutions. If we say we have counsellors in these institutions, then they have failed in their duty. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have a deficiency in terms of training. Most of the counsellors we have in various sectors; including in the HIV/AIDS sector, are not well trained. We need standardised training. We need registered counsellors. We need people who know what they are doing. We do not want people who end up misleading instead of helping our people. Therefore, as we look at this Motion, let us also look at the growing cases of suicide in this country. It is very sad that young people are killing themselves for reasons unknown to us. These people need counselling. I would like to appeal and challenge the Government to put in place institutions that will churn out properly trained individuals to carry out this task. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is also important to say that drug abuse is also an 1206 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 9, 2007 area we need to focus our counselling efforts on. We have private counselling institutions in this country. However, we do not have a regulating mechanism to ensure that the people who work in these institutions are the right ones. It is important for us to spend money in training these individuals. We should train them, so that we can standardise and regulate those who work for us. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I doubt whether those counselling prisoners have the right qualifications to do so. I think these are just prison warders given a task of rehabilitating individuals found in jail. Prisons are supposed to be places of rehabilitation. They are not places for punishment. We expect those who come from prisons to have been rehabilitated through regular, qualified counselling by qualified individuals. However, we are seeing that people who go to prisons come out more hardened. This is a result of the conditions and the stressful environment they live under. Recently, we saw on television the kind of life prisoners live in. I think it is a shame for this country. Those people need help. They do not need to be punished. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion should be very clear on some of these issues. I support the idea of having a board to manage these activities. I am sure that the board will have independent powers of ensuring that all the aspects of psychological and general counselling are taken care of. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}