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{
"id": 557014,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/557014/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Limo",
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"speaker": {
"id": 1915,
"legal_name": "Joseph Kirui Limo",
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"content": "difficult to implement anything because we are trying as much as possible to ensure that everything we do becomes very punitive. An example is the difficult and punitive provision for payment of fines – which is counterproductive. Therefore, as we make very good laws to govern marriage, we must not introduce rules that make the processes difficult. As they are, the rules are counterproductive. We have made it difficult to implement the law. Advising people against entering into come-we-stay kind of marriage and, again, telling them that they have to travel long distances to get married does not make sense. For instance, if you are from Turkana County, you are supposed to travel to Nakuru or Eldoret in order to get married. If you are from Namanga or Kajiado, you are supposed to travel all the way to Nakuru to get married and be issued with a certificate. This arrangement will only encourage people to get married in the bush. No one will get married officially because people will look at the cost involved, which is prohibitive. Other than the direct costs of a marriage, there are the indirect costs of travelling and waiting. I can imagine people travelling all the way from Mandera to Garissa, and from Ukambani to Embu. It is punitive. We should make everything easy so that people can appreciate. If we make the process difficult in the hope of collecting more revenue, for instance, by saying that you must pay Kshs3,000 in order to get married, then there will be the problem of not attaining the numbers. Therefore, it will not work. If we have to collect revenue, we must look at the turnover. We should collect very little money from 1,000 people instead of collecting a lot of money from three people. At the end of the day, it will not be working for anybody. So, there is need to reduce the cost. We will even have to consider amending this Motion. When we say we are urging the Government, it is not effective. We should not be urging the Government. We should be saying that “This House has resolved” so that immediately we pass this Motion, it becomes effective. If we say we are urging, it is going nowhere. You know the people we are dealing with. The people who are going to implement this are the same people we were rejecting the other day for not respecting this House. So, do you expect anything from this Motion? No, because we are urging. We are simply begging. Can we ask you? Sincerely, can we ask them to implement when we know the people who are going to implement this are unwilling? They are unwilling not because it is not a good idea, but because they are people who are sitting in the high offices who have a very serious disconnect with the ground. They do not know what the people of Kenya need. They just sit in the office from 8.00a.m to 5.00 p.m. and then go home. They do not know what Mr. Kamau, Mr. Chelugoi or Mr. Ouma who are suffering in the village need. So, by urging that the Government should move registration of marriages to the sub-county level and that the cost of marriage should be lowered, we are not resolving anything. We must stamp our authority by saying that: “This House resolves that the cost of marriage should come down.” Secondly, we should also resolve that the registration of marriages should be based at the sub-county. The spirit of the new Constitution is to move services closer to the people. However, what is happening now is that the implementers are moving services away from the people. That is why most of the time I respect our friends, the Senators. However, when they also campaign and say we should move services away from the people by saying, for example, that the implementation of the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) should be moved away from the sub-county to the county, what are we saying? 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."
}