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{
    "id": 485355,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/485355/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 364,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Eng.) Gumbo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 24,
        "legal_name": "Nicholas Gumbo",
        "slug": "nicholas-gumbo"
    },
    "content": "I am not here disclosing whether I am there or here but I am only saying that this is a very wide topic and the Committee needs to appreciate the dynamism and sometimes the diverse cultures. I remember there was a time we were debating Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) here and a Member was thrown out -I think it was hon. Jimmy Angwenyi. You realise that Chapter 11 of our Constitution recognises people’s culture. Today, whether we like it or not, there are our sisters and womenfolk in this country who would not feel that they are complete women unless they undergo FGM. This is the reality. So, with due respect to the Committee, let us not focus. I know for a fact that women suffer a lot. This spreads across every culture in this country but the truth is that men suffer equally. Hon. Speaker, there are also what I would call “latent” forms of violence. For instance, issues to do with cyber terrorism. These are things which subject people to violence. Whether we like it or not, they are a reality. Therefore, as we go to the Committee stage, I would want us to allow for provisions that recognise the dynamism of domestic violence and the fact that sometimes what might look like violence in one part of the country may not necessarily be violence in another part of the country. That is the reality. In so far as providing the structural foundation for addressing this problem is concerned, I speak here as a husband and as a father who has daughters. I also have sons but I would not want a situation where either my daughters or my sons one day later in their lives get subjected to one form of violence or the other merely because their predisposition as either male or female makes it “unacceptable” to undergo that kind of violence. Therefore, I thank the Committee for looking at psychological violence and other forms of trauma which may not necessarily be physical forms of violence. I would want that, as we go into the Committee stage, we make it very vibrant. We cannot provide for all forms of violence because some keep on emerging all the time but let us provide an environment that allows for dynamism. What might be acceptable in 2014 might not necessarily be acceptable in 2114. With those remarks, I support but I will be proposing amendments during the Committee stage."
}