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{
    "id": 486199,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/486199/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 320,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Anyango",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 130,
        "legal_name": "Dalmas Anyango Otieno",
        "slug": "dalmas-otieno"
    },
    "content": "It is a serious effort towards promoting sound marital practices in this Republic. It is a Bill that we have to prepare ourselves to develop over time. To do so, we need to recognize that the offences that we are castigating under this Bill arise from situations without much malice aforethought. Somebody who says that memory has failed him, and turns out to be a negligent person, will be a culprit under this Bill. Another person will say that his temper betrays him. These are negative attributes with which each person is created in our Republic. If his temper fails him, he only realizes it after he has slapped somebody and then he says that he is sorry. Both men and women do these kinds of things, in my experience. Somebody will say that his hormones are failing him. The hormones surge up and you only discover that you have pinned the wrong person down at the wrong time and at the wrong age. Another person may allege that it is poverty that is betraying him. I have personally saved very many marriages just by surrendering a cow to be given as bride prize, and there was harmony in a house. A woman was so nagging that her co-wives and sisters in the village laughed at her because no cow was sent to her home as dowry. I have paid over hundred of such dowries to bring harmony in homes. So, the offenses we are castigating under this Bill are out of attributes and failures with which we are created as human beings. That is why I am pleading that we convey the right message to Kenyans, that it is promotion of domestic harmony instead of protection and emphasizing the violent part of it. We are rejecting the violent in an effort to promote domestic harmony. Somebody was created jealous; you find a mother is so jealous of her son and insists that the son should be treated in a particular way and ends up intervening in the marital affairs of the son. What do we do in those circumstances? We employ reconciliation, counseling and teaching. My faith is letting me down. All these are attributes inbuilt in us. When your faith or religious beliefs, are letting you down, you may end up with the wrong practices in the process. The worst violence in this country, which is increasing by the day, is divorce or separation. That is a more serious violence than what we have even listed here. Children have been in this House today and they will attest to the trauma they go through when father and mother cannot agree. So, changing the title to “Promotion of Domestic Harmony” instead of “Protection Against Domestic Violence” will be sending a message to Kenyans to make every effort to establish sound marital practices. They will make every effort to avoid domestic violence. Make every effort to be considerate despite your other weaknesses with which you were created; be considerate to your partner, children and neighbours as well. The previous systems which we had, and which strengthened the family, are, as you are aware, breaking down. Previously, if a mother was too violent with the child, all the child needed to do was to run to the grandmother; the chidl enjoyed ultimate freedom in the hands of a grandmother. These days, grandmothers do not even live near. Nowadays, mothers run away with their children and they live with those children under circumstances that are not good enough. Finally, we need specialized courts, or tribunals, presided over by a Magistrate, and supported by a bench of experts who are interested and committed to the promotion of domestic harmony. It should be a bench. We can have a First Class Magistrate The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}