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{
    "id": 456347,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/456347/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 412,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kimaru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2072,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Mutahi Kimaru",
        "slug": "anthony-mutahi-kimaru"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. It is my pleasure to continue my contribution regarding this very important Bill. From the outset, I would like to state that I support this Bill as I had earlier stated. One of the main reasons why I support this Bill is because it raises the issue of marriageable age or the age of consent. This is the age at which a young person would be allowed to legally enter into a marriage. The new Bill puts that at 18 years and for good reasons. All those who are below 18 years should be considered as children to enable them to pursue their education and become better persons in future. With regard to the raising of the marriage age, the proposers of this Bill should even go further and look at the probability of enacting other statutes, especially when it comes to the Sexual Offences Act. That is where we have rape and defilement which, at times, are very difficult to prove. Those weak statutes are used by pests - if I may call them that - to continue practices that are not human and civilized and, many a times, they get away with it. We have also seen - and this is commendable - some of these statutes having punitive sentences which go as high as life sentence. I am sure that with such punitive sentences, people may desist from committing such offences. We should look at the possibility of enacting statutes which are found in certain jurisdictions such as the Statutory Rape Law. In that law, if any person engages in sexual activity with a minor or a person below the marriageable age, whether that person has consented or not - because below the marriageable age we cannot talk of consent - such a person would have committed a crime of statutory rape. Regardless of whether a minor consented or not, a person would have committed statutory rape on the basis of having engaged a person who is not capable of consenting. I am sure that we will get more convictions and this will be a deterrent."
}