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{
    "id": 539466,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/539466/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 115,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Lay",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1022,
        "legal_name": "Joyce Wanjalah Lay",
        "slug": "joyce-wanjalah-lay"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to thank hon. Millie Odhiambo for bringing this historic Bill. I remember that when I first came to this House, I had some time to share with hon. Millie Odhiambo about my own experience and I told her that there was a Bill that I wanted to introduce to Parliament, and that I would need her help. I was happy to learn and understand that she had the same Bill in the previous Parliament and it was being drafted. To me, it was a prayer answered. I say it was a prayer answered because it is something that I have gone through and lived with. I am a living testimony. It is high time this country designs a legal framework on human reproductive technologies. We cannot get stuck in dark ages. Technology is moving very fast and if we want to be a digital country then we have to keep up with technology. I want to speak mainly on this Bill; hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona has recommended formation of an authority to be in charge of the In-Vitro Fertilisation (IVF). This will regulate the process and also bring to stop the fraud cases that have been happening in this country. The IVF technology is not new in this country. It has been happening. The difference, as hon. Millie was telling me, is that I decided to do it before the law was put in place. She wanted the law to be put in place before she goes through this process. So, it has been happening. It is a sad thing because when you go to clinics, you find them full. I remember when we started the process, we would go as early as 7.00 a.m. and we would find the clinic full. That tells you that there is a huge problem. Women are suffering in this country. Women are having reproductive issues in this country. It is not just women but even men. To see that they will go to such an extent of even spending a lot of money to make sure that they have children, that tells you that this Bill is really timely. This Bill seeks to address challenges and thereby empower and strengthen the practice of doctors in the area of IVF. I was really shocked to see women who could not give birth going to the extent of having eggs donated even by young girls. As we speak, it is a business that is going on. Women are crying every day. Women are going through this pain every day of not being called a mother and not having their own child to hold in their hands. The experience that hon. Millie has gone through also befell me. I remember when I was campaigning my opponents would even go to the extent of asking the community: “How are you going to vote for a woman who cannot give birth? She has to be assisted to give birth.” You see, these are the things that are going on in the community. When people hear about this, it is pain that no woman will want to go through. Because of the laws that are missing in this process, as hon. Millie explained earlier, even after I went through this, and I being the biological mother of my child, I was forced to go through adoption."
}