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"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Bill. I want to thank my colleagues who spoke before me. Particularly, I would like to thank the lawyer Members of Parliament who spoke on last Thursday. They gave us a very incisive expose on this Bill. They did a very good job. Also, I would like to thank the Attorney-General for coming out clearly in spelling out some of the very important points that have been of concern to hon. Members. I am very happy that the lady Members of Parliament are back with us here and that they are now debating. I want to particularly thank the last speaker, Mrs. Mugo, for what she said. 840 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 2, 2006 However, I want to advise the lady Members of Parliament that walking out of the Chamber is not the answer. We must be prepared to convince each other. The debate here is about bringing out certain critical points and weaknesses of this Bill so that we can pass a Bill that will pass the test of time. We are in a transition in our society, as hon. Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o said earlier on. When the British came to this country over 100 years ago, they found different communities with different cultures and traditions. Out there in Berlin, Germany, they drew boundaries of the African colonies. We found ourselves in this space called Kenya. Over the 100 years, various communities have existed and co-existed with each other. Right now, our society is in transition. Today, there is rural to urban migration. This is a permanent feature of our lives, which we must come to terms with. It also means that there is an influx of our own cultural values. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, at the moment we are all very concerned about the increases of cases of violence, particularly sexual violence. Sexual violence against children in form of incest, sodomy, defilement, rape and indecent assault are on the increase. When we find a situation whereby a 96-year-old grandmother is being gang-raped by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, we must ask ourselves what is wrong? Put yourself in a situation where you come back home and you find that your three year-old daughter has been raped by a 40-year-old HIV-positive man because a witchdoctor told him that his only cure is to have sexual intercourse with a small child. These are issues that must be of serious concern to us as a House. How do we deal with this situation? We need to ask ourselves: Is it because of lack of adequate laws? Is it because of the decadence in our cultures and traditions? Is it because of socio- economic problems that we have in our society? We need to ask ourselves those questions in order to find a solution to the problem. When the House debated and approved the Motion seeking leave of the House to introduce this Bill, the attitude of most hon. Members was synonymous. That is the reason why, in the Memorandum of Objects and Reasons it is stated here that:- \"This Bill seeks to make provision for sexual offences, their definition, prevention and the protection of all persons from harm from sexual acts. The Bill further seeks to prescribe stiffer and enhanced penalties for sexual-related offences.\" That was the spirit of the Motion that we passed here. It states that we should specify very stiff sentences for sexual offenders. At that time, I remember, if I may take hon. Members down the memory lane, we were even talking about castration of rapists. I, therefore, find nothing wrong if somebody who has been tried and found to have committed an act of rape against a child or an old woman is subjected to the sentences which are proscribed in this Bill here. This is what we wanted when we passed the Motion here. To that extent, I would say that the Mover has fully complied with the mood of the House at the time that we gave her leave. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, our society is in transition. As the Attorney-General eloquently stated, traditional societies did forbid rape and there are very stiff penalties against this. I know that in traditional Luo society, virginity was a virtue. When a girl got married, they examined her for virginity. In other words, the following day, they examined the bed where she slept with her husband. There was a lady who was meant to carry out the inspection, like the Muslims normally do, to establish whether she was actually a virgin. Anybody who was guilty of violating that virginity got a very stiff sentence. Sometimes he could be thrown into the lake. After foreigners came into our country, our society acquired other values and very many people also came into our country. I want us to look at the background where we are coming from to see where we are today. Everybody knows that our ladies have not been able to get their rights in our society. In the 1950s, there was a song that was sung by a Congolese musician. It was recorded and it went like this:"
}