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{
    "id": 491706,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/491706/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 326,
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    "content": "disability go through several challenges that need specific legislation. At times they are forgotten. We must make sure that as we take care of other people without disabilities, then we also take care of the persons living with disabilities. They must have user- friendly infrastructure and relevant communication in the manner, language, form that they can understand and read. This is very important. They also need education in the right way. They need protection from those abusive coercive practices such as forced sterilization, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and all those harmful cultures that have been prohibited by law, but maybe practiced on them because someone feels that they cannot speak for themselves or understand what is going on. I wish to inform my colleagues, Sen. Sang and Sen. Lonyangapuo, that in the first part or the preliminaries, there are several definitions which will help the public at large and also my colleagues to understand most of these terms. Even if there are more details on the ways to protect the newborn child and provide all the medical care, there is a word that is referred to medically as intra-pattern services. This just means that the correct diagnosis followed by periodic examinations, screening and management of complications in the period from onset of labour to the completed delivery of the newborn and the completed delivery of the placenta. So, do not be worried if I talk about some terms which you may not understand; they are defined clearly in the interpretation section and every Kenyan will be able to understand. Part Four of this Bill talks about safe motherhood. This is the chapter that really provoked me and the main reason I am standing before you today and before Kenyans. When I was a small girl, my mother had a friend who we went to visit. We met her at the gate and she was in labour pain and in tears. I asked my mother what was happening and she told me that her friend was pregnant and was going to have a baby. I said: “Wow!” The next time my mum took me there, I found a big coffin and another small one on the floor. I asked my mum: “Where is your friend?” My mum told me: “There they are; they died during childbirth.” Of course, I could hear people saying that it could have been solved, but she had bled too much. I felt this was really bad. When I grew up I studied law and became a family lawyer and a human and women rights activist; following up on the rights of women and children. We followed the discourse on the issue of childbirth. Sometime in the year 2006/ 2007, I was involved in research, again, by the Centre for Reproductive Rights and other lawyers of human rights organizations like the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA). When the book “Failure to Deliver” came up, I remembered those days we used to go to Pumwani Hospital. There were reports that women were giving birth at the gate and children were dying of complications. We did research in the villages and that is the time it was clear that if you are pregnant you are put in a wheelbarrow and pushed; if you reach your destination you are lucky; if you fall down, too bad. When you reach the hospital the facilities are not there. You are told again to take another mile. It will reach a point that a pregnant woman actually fails to deliver. When you go through this report, of course, things have changed, but in my mind I know we can still go back there, and that is why as I thank the Government for giving women free maternity services it is still a policy, there is no legislation to confirm that. That is why I say this Bill should, and must be implemented to make sure that this gain is not wasted in future. Whenever there are financial issues or otherwise, it is the gains of The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}