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{
    "id": 238318,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/238318/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 206,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Muchiri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 225,
        "legal_name": "Muchiri Geoffrey Gachara",
        "slug": "geoffrey-gachara"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to support this Sessional Paper which is timely. The House will recall that it passed a Bill which was to mainstream gender. That Bill resulted in the establishment of the Commissioner for Gender October 19, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3091 and Development. I urge the Ministry to utilise that Commission for the time being to develop gender issues that are being debated so that we do not continue to debate Sessional Papers when we have legislations that can be used. It is important to say that women of this country are disadvantaged. We should recognise that many women are married under traditional laws. I call upon the Ministry and the Government at large to think of registering traditional marriages. Most men and women in this country marry under customary laws, and marriages are governed by Cap.150 and 151 of the Laws of Kenya. Given that nearly 99 per cent of the women are married through traditional marriages, they should be issued with a marriage certificate. This is important because if we are going to give women security, then we must go to the root cause of the problem. First of all, if their security is going to be guaranteed in the families, then they need to have a document to recognise that they are married in those families. That is the whole reason why I am advocating for registration of traditional marriages and issuance of a certificate to that effect. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, where I come from, I am kind of recalling that there should be some \" ngurario \" certificate which would give effect to those things. I think the problem here is the provision of civic education to women. If we cannot provide civic education to women, they will continue disregarding themselves. This is the issue! We also want women to have respect amongst themselves. They should recognise that when a woman is in a position of authority, she should be respected by the other women. We need to look forward to a situation where many women will be elected into this Parliament and given positions in the Government. How can we achieve that when we know that 52 per cent of the population and voters in this country are women yet they do not vote for women candidates for the traditional and other reasons. Civic education, therefore, is very paramount in this aspect. The issue of empowerment of women is important not necessarily that they should access credit because I think they are being misused even through those kinds of arrangements. The Minister for Finance, who I think is here, should look into the issue of women being over-exploited through those credit systems. How can women in the countryside be asked to pay 10 per cent every month for the loans they are given through the so-called merry-go-round? If you are given a loan of Kshs5,000, you pay 10 per cent profit every month. We are talking of an interest rate of about 120 per cent in a year. I am not sure whether the Micro-Finance Bill, as proposed, is going to cure this mischief. I think the level of capital within the Micro-Finance Bill may not cure the mischief unless we lower the level of capital required to establish those micro-finance organisations. This issue can be addressed by the Ministry of Gender, Sports, Culture and Social Services and the Ministry of Finance to enable women access soft credit. Right now, they are accessing credit that can only be said to be hard credit of 10 per cent every month. That kind of credit cannot assist them. In fact, many of them are now coming to us because their utensils are being attached by some of those shylocks. That is not doing them any good at all. In the Constitution that never was, women lost a good document. They did so because there was a lot of mix-up of politics and other issues. If that document went through, the women would have won the battle very gladly to recognise their rights. Unfortunately, it is water under the bridge. 3092 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 19, 2006 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think it is also important that we encourage women to take up positions of leadership. In the countryside, sometimes women are shy to take up positions of leadership."
}