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{
    "id": 238304,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/238304/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 192,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Ojaamong",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 196,
        "legal_name": "Sospeter Odeke Ojaamongson",
        "slug": "sospeter-ojaamongson"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Sessional Paper on Gender Equality and Development. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as the Assistant Minister has said, the Paper tends to summarise and mainstream issues to do with women. Women have been seen to be at the periphery, whereas men enjoy everything. The men have all the economic, political, educational, cultural and historical powers. It has not been by choice that women have been at the periphery. But if you went point by point, for instance, and looked at the cultural aspect, you find this Sessional Paper tends to summarily discard the cultural aspects of our society. It does not put safeguards on how some of our positive cultural values can be retained. A society such as Kenya which is multi-cultural, needs a lot of care when you are addressing the issues of culture. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we talk about land, if you went to Central Province, the way the issue of land to women is taken is quite different from the way it is perceived in western Kenya. Women from Western Province, for instance, are not very keen, at the moment, to acquire land as compared to those in Central Province, who have reached that stage. We have to address these issues because it might cause a lot of conflict if proper measures are not put in place. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, regarding the economic empowerment of women--- Indeed, women have been the producers on the ground as far as agriculture is concerned. However, they have not entered into business so much. Even if it is their farms, the produce usually benefits the men after sale. This one needs a lot of civic education. There must also be a provision for soft loans for women so that they can engage in their own productive activities as opposed to joint activities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are so many micro-finance institutions which have been started by women themselves in order to assist their own. For instance, we have the Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT) and many others which have spread to the rural areas. However, instead of going to assist the women in the rural areas, these very women have gone to the villages to exploit their own. Some women have even run away from the villages and are hiding in towns because financial institutions want to auction their property and snatch from them their tools of trade. In fact, there is a saying that goes that: \"Women are their own enemies\". I think that is true. Women have started so many organisations in the micro-finance sector, but they are out to exploit their own. They have also started many organisations in the education sector, for instance, the Forum for African Women Educationists (FAWE) and others. However, these groups are out to exploit other women who deserve education. Hon. Members here should ask themselves if there is any scholarship that FAWE has given to any constituency yet they have been getting billions and billions of shillings from donors. This money has just been ending up in the pockets of very few women who think that they are too intelligent to be in Nairobi and that they cannot go to the rural areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know too well the potential that women have if well assisted by the Government. If the Government takes the responsibility to assist women, our country and society can change because women are not as extravagant as men. With regard to the legal aspect of this matter, I would like to talk of one small organisation in Kenya which purports to be giving women legal representation. This organisation comprises of ten or so women who have become merchants of evil. Their work is to propagate hate, envy, 3084 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 19, 2006 causing unnecessary divorces and rendering children destitute for no apparent reason other than soliciting funds from the donors."
}