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{
    "id": 483844,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/483844/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 398,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Anami",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2773,
        "legal_name": "Lisamula Silverse Anami",
        "slug": "lisamula-silverse-anami"
    },
    "content": "It is only fair, therefore, as a Kenyan society to embrace Article 53 of the Constitution. We should not only leave the responsibility of parentage to mother and father, but extend it to the larger society. Indeed, our cultures have taken care of that. Our cultures know what the father and mother should do and we have lived to that. But because of the changing socio-economic dynamics, we find ourselves on the wrong side of the systems. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we have orphaned children and we have to attend to these children because they have no mother or father. Some of them get orphaned from the time they are born. We have to embrace cultural norms and practices that take care of such children. We should do that by incorporating the same in our legislation. We have specialized children who are born out of crime; others are born out of incest or rape. These children have to be taken care of and we have to embrace these systems in the legislative process so that we cater for everybody. For instance, the issue of street children is alarming and therefore, we cannot take this matter lightly and even reduce them to personal concerns. In this respect, I would like to support this Bill and invite hon. Members to take these amendments seriously, especially this time when we are applying Agenda Four of the National Dialogue. We have the issue of poverty in this country. Poverty is the greatest enemy of parentage. In Shinyalu Constituency - you may have heard this issue in the media today - a mother of five children offered to sell two of them; and this happened only yesterday but one. We might take this matter lightly, but she has five children and she cannot take care of them. That is why she took the two children to the market. We cannot take this matter lightly; we need a serious intervention through implementation of the Children Act and through effective implementation of our Constitution, especially Article 53. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the cost of education is alarming and we have a lot of school dropouts. This will worsen the situation of employment and self- sustainability. We need to take this amendment seriously so that children are taken care of from birth through their childhood. We need to address the issue of children’s rights seriously and at all levels."
}