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"id": 237726,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/237726/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ms. Mbarire",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 78,
"legal_name": "Cecily Mutitu Mbarire",
"slug": "cecily-mbarire"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity to rise and support this Sessional Paper on Gender Equality and Development. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me begin from the outset by congratulating the Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services for the excellent job that they are doing towards ensuring gender equity in this country. We have, over the years, moved from dealing with women in development to dealing with gender and development, the reason being that women in development programmes have further marginalised women instead of bringing them into the mainstream processes. As such, it is very important that we continue to ensure mainstreaming of gender in all spheres of life so that women, men, girls and boys are all brought on board when we are thinking of policy formulation and when we are thinking about the laws that we pass on the Floor of this House. When we are thinking of all spheres of life, we must take into consideration gender equality or equity. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, allow me to concentrate on the issue of young women who are facing critical challenges as they grow up today. They are jobless just like the young men. They October 26, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3207 have no access to credit facilities because they do not own property and, therefore, do not have collateral to access credit facilities. We know that the woman is hampered by cultural and legal obstacles from accessing or owning any property. I look forward to seeing a gender policy that ensures that young women are economically empowered and that they are able to access credit facilities. I want to congratulate the Government for bringing on board the Youth Enterprise Fund and insisting that 60 per cent of the Kshs1 billion will go towards the empowerment of young women. However, much more needs to be done. We know that this Kshs1 billion is just the beginning but not an end in itself. There is much more needed but even then, we also need a Women Enterprise Fund so that the women too who have had a long history of discrimination in terms of economic empowerment can begin to reap the fruits of our Independent Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when you go to health centres, you find that young women are the most affected and infected. They are vulnerable. They engage in sexual affairs very early in their lives and, more often than not, with older men who have had several partners. For that reason, there is a high level of HIV/AIDS infection in young women between the ages of 15 years to 25 years. That number is way above that of young men. Because of that, it is important to bring that factor into consideration and look into ways of ensuring that the programmes that we have on HIV/AIDS address that sad reality about young women. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also know that in the area of health, there is a special issue of reproductive health that needs to be taken care of. We have a felt-need of reproductive health rights, access to proper maternity services and family planning. Women should have access to all other reproductive health issues affecting them. We hope that, through this Sessional Paper, the Government will increase its financial support towards reproductive health issues, to ensure that women access those services. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wish to address the issue of the media. To me, the media has played a major role in gender inequity. If you go to media houses, there is very little gender equity at the highest level of decision-making. We are talking about the editorial boards of many media houses. That is the reason why, more often than not, the content of most media houses is gender-biased and gender-blind. The language used is gender-blind and we continue to further marginalise one gender. I hope the media too, will take up this issue and look at ways of gender mainstreaming within their work. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at the advertisements that we watch on our televisions on a daily basis, they are there to ensure further marginalisation of women. They further entrench the so-called gender roles. You will find that when a bank is advertising for a new loan package, it will show a man going to the bank and getting those credit facilities. It is never a woman! What message are they sending to women and girls who watch such advertisements? It shows that money and the economy belongs to men. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when it is an advertisement to do with food and childrens' health, they bring women on board. That further entrenches the gender roles. I am yet to see a lotion being advertised by a man. I am yet to see Kimbo or any cooking fat being advertised by a man. I would like to hear him say how sweet the food tastes when he cooks it with Kimbo! Those are the gender biases that we see in our advertisements. They keep on reminding women that their place is in the kitchen. We are saying that we have to get out of those kitchens and participate in nation building and decision-making. That is not to say that we are not going to cook any more. We are saying that time has come when we must expose both boys and girls to all the roles. You can wake up one day and take care of your children because your wife is gone. You have to cook for them because no one else is there to do that. Those are some of the issues that are of concern. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, further, I think we have to seriously consider the 3208 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 26, 2006 whole issue of gender in the national budget. A good example is that, right now, 80 per cent of agricultural labour is provided by women. But we know that in terms of output and money earned from what the women have done, most of it goes into the men's pockets. Therefore, we hope that, through this Sessional Paper, we shall have budgets that take that issue into consideration. We need a budget that will ensure that women who are in dairy farming can own their own cows and benefit from the resources that come out of their sweat as they take care of their livestock. We look forward to a budget that empowers women in the agricultural, industrial and manufacturing sectors. That way, we will have more women enjoying their sweat. I also want to talk about representation of women in decision-making. Part of the reason why we have gender-blind policies and laws is low representation of women in decision-making organs. We hope that we can work towards the African Union (AU) Protocol on Gender Parity, which aims at ensuring that there is 50:50 representation of women and men in all levels of decision-making. Most importantly, in the next Parliament, we can see a bigger number of women representatives. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know that most decision are made in this House. The Budget is passed in this House. So, it is very important that, if we are to ensure gender equity, we start with the Kenya National Assembly. We also know that the policies of this House are so blind that they did not expect that, at one time, they will have to deal with young female Members of Parliament in their reproductive age. It is no wonder that there is no maternity policy to take care of them. We hope that this Parliament will change that. Even by the inscriptions on the door there, we can begin to change our attitude towards greater representation of women, so that every gender in the society is taken care of. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}