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{
    "id": 486693,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/486693/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 387,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Angwenyi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 326,
        "legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
        "slug": "jimmy-angwenyi"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Speaker, before this Bill was brought to the Floor of the House, the Committee should have moved around the country to learn the values of our communities. This House represents the entire country. The other day I was sent out of this House when I said that criminalising culture would force people to go underground and do worse things than what they would have done if they were to do the same in the open. I can give the example of the so-called Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)”. I can talk for my community. Since they have not been educated to quit that practice voluntarily, they have gone underground. The practice there exists in the ratio of 96 per cent. Instead of taking their children to hospital, they hide them in their rooms. The children can die or suffer some illnesses when they are hidden. If we were to instead use the money that we are using to criminalise some of these cultures to educate those people, they will quit some of the so-called bad practices. The money that we are going to use to recruit policemen, judges and magistrates to try such cases – because they would be many out of a pollution of more than 40 million – that money could be used to enhance love and harmony in our families. What I am saying is that we should follow our religious tenets; Christian and Islamic tenets. There are cultural tenets which have brought this country to this level. Hon. Speaker, where these laws have been introduced, in the United States of America (USA) – I lived in the USA for eight years – 70 per cent of married people divorce before they die. In Kenya, where we do not have this law, only a maximum of 15 per cent of married people divorce before they die. Do we want to move in that direction, where you marry knowing that you will not survive with that husband or wife all your life? We must protect our cultures and families. Some of the provisions of this Bill already exist in other legislations like the Children Act. Why do we want to repeat them in this Bill? In fact, we should repeal some of those Acts because they are making our families not to run harmoniously. The Bill also talks of marital rape. We are talking about somebody you persuaded to move from her parents’ home to your home. When she moved from her parents’ home to your home, that was when she accepted you. Therefore, every time you need that thing, she should accept. Also, when you brought her to your home, you had accepted. You are not going to negotiate every time you want each other. Are you going to sit down and negotiate? Are you going to pay a price for it? Hon. Speaker, we are not opposing this thing simply because we are men. We have daughters, wives and mothers and we care about them. Let us not enact laws which will destroy our family fabric and destroy the country. These are some of the kind of laws that have allowed some Kenyans to embrace gay practices. Hon. Speaker, just imagine a man looking at you and thinking that you are beautiful because the law allows it!"
}