Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 335054,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/335054/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 449,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I know that there is a very strong love-hate relationship between Parliament and NGOs, which stemmed primarily from a misunderstanding of the role of NGOs. Before I came to Parliament, many people used to tell me: “The only thing you do is to run in the streets so that your donors can see you and give you money.” They do not know that when I worked in the NGO sector, I worked harder than in Parliament. I would go to my house shortly before 4.00 a.m. every day because of the amount of work that I had to do. I used to deal with children who were raped daily. We would deal with women who had been chased out of their homes. Sometimes you would have to take them to your own home. You deal with children who have no school fees. You deal with a myriad of problems. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the civil society entity is actually the body that has been providing the social security network that the Government should provide. There are some civil society organisations which are in the development sector. Such organisations have been responsible for provision of roads in areas which have no roads like Northern Kenya. In a place like Mbita, where I come from, if it were not for NGOs, it would be a forgotten area in this world. For instance, Mbita Constituency is the epicentre of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Almost 95 per cent of the resources there have been put by NGOs. If you look at child protection in Mbita, which I would like to cite as an example because I come from there; we have no justice system. If it were not for the Cradle, all the children who were abused and thrown out of school would have no hope, but for NGOs. Therefore, I want to encourage hon. Mrs. Noor. It is a good Bill, but we need to look into some, which we need to improve. One of those issues is that this Bill could be even a little shorter. Some of the principles could be collapsed together into shorter and tighter principles, so that we do not have a long list of principles which mean the same thing. There is a lot of undue wording in this Bill, but we could collapse it. “Equity” and “equality” cover whole lots of wording that have been put in this Bill. So, I would want us to make it shorter. There is a bit of repetition because, maybe, the Bill was done in a hurry. So, we need to clean it up, so that it can be shorter. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, another thing that I find good is that organisations which will be registered under this Bill will get certain benefits, including tax exemption and none payment of legal fee. I can tell this House for a fact that most of the clients that are represented in the NGO sector are very poor. I was indeed one of the persons who pushed even into the Constitution provisions for access to justice. I am very happy that this aspect has been provided in this Bill because most of the people we support are very poor. For instance, we dealt with children who had been disinherited. We have a lot of young people whose parents have died. The deceased persons have left their relatives to take care of the children and their property. People living with HIV/AIDS, especially, who knew their status and knew that they may be dying, would leave their property under the care of their relatives. However, after those people, their relatives would take away the properties from their children. When you go to court, the amount of legal fees that needs to be paid is exorbitant and those poor people cannot afford it. So, I am glad that the Bill exempts NGOs from paying taxes and legal fees."
}