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{
    "id": 500552,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/500552/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 446,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Gathecha",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 652,
        "legal_name": "Annah Nyokabi Gathecha",
        "slug": "annah-nyokabi-gathecha"
    },
    "content": "No! Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Bill. It is not only a timely Bill, but one that provides sufficient justice for persons who have been detained or whose liberties have been deprived. I want to, particularly, bring to your attention an issue that took place a few days ago in Kikuyu. One of my constituents went to a police station to pick a P3 Form because she had been raped by a neighbour, only to be raped by a police officer. As a result, her three months child died while she was being raped for five hours. Those kinds of injustices are just intolerable. In this day and age, it is completely unfair that our people - and especially women in this country - continue to face that kind of miscarriage of justice at the hands of people who have been placed in positions of authority and who are supposed to be taking care of them. As I contribute to this Bill, I have been involved in assisting migrant workers who have been detained, especially in Arab countries. Today, a body of another of my constituents has been brought back from Saudi Arabia. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, those women go out to look for work but they are detained in centres where their humanitarian rights are not recognised. I hope that this particular Bill we are discussing today will also apply to, not just our citizens here, but also those migrants, refugees and job-seekers who are being detained. We hope that, with this Bill, they will be assisted within the centres they are being held with respect to their accommodation and the way they are being treated in those centres. Indeed, their human rights that are enshrined in our Constitution will be looked after. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I commend this Bill because it provides an opportunity for women held in detention or those who have been deprived of their liberties to be separated from men, and that is critical. Not only should their confinement quarters be separate, but also the accommodation of girls and boys should be separate from the adults. This protects their inherent dignity and rights so that they are not abused or exposed to situations that they are not accustomed to. The other aspect that this Bill deals with is the fact that, if a child is born in jail, the birth certificate will not state that, that child was born in prison. Article 23 (4) of the Constitution states that, if a child is born of a person deprived of liberty, the fact that the birth took place in a detention facility or prison shall not be entered in the birth certificate. This protects the children and ensures that they do not grow up with the stigma but instead, with the dignity that will be accorded to them once the parent is released. The other part of this Bill that I want to speak to and recommend that it is introduced is the fact that any person who is detained in the execution of lawful sentence is entitled to be visited, at least, once in every 14 days. At least, this maintains contact 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."
}