Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 697388,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/697388/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 93,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Mwaura",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13129,
        "legal_name": "Isaac Maigua Mwaura",
        "slug": "isaac-mwaura"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I rise to support the approval of the Sessional Paper on the National Children Policy tabled in Parliament today. It is very interesting that we waited until now to have a Sessional Paper on children. Laws should be preceded by policies so that Acts of Parliament can then try to put into life the provisions or the aspirations of the policy. A policy is basically a statement of good intentions that will be enshrined in a legally acceptable document. Children in Kenya continue to suffer from many things. They are not homogenous because they represent various facets of life. Therefore, it is important to look at them from that perspective. We need to protect them from the time they are born, all the way to the age of 18. Just before I came for this session today, I had a conversation with a legal counsel about a very interesting phenomenon that is happening in relation to the Sexual Offences Act. The Act provides for minimum sentences to offenders on rape and on issues around consent. There is something that is obtaining. For example, you have a 19 year old university boy taken to court for having a sexual relationship with a 16 year old girl. As a result, then the minimum sentence for this offence, if at all there is to be an offence based on the Sexual Offences Act, is actually 20 years. So, you are talking about incarcerating this individual until they are in their 30s or 40s. Is that really what we would want to have? I commend Wanjiru Karanja for appearing before the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) to express herself on this issue. This is because it is even confusing the judges. These are some of the things that we as Parliament need to look at so that we do not just legislate because we know we are going for the kill. It is very different if such a situation were to be in relation to a 40-year old man and a 16-year old girl. A very good example is the case of those Members of County Assembly (MCAs) from Kisii County who are accused of having molested underage children. We need to put some of these things into perspective. In a highly patriarchal society, the issue around consent may be debatable. I think we need to also interrogate that because if you look at the other generation, especially the age of our grandmothers, they were married before they were even 18 years. So, it is something that we need to discuss when we codify some of things into law. There is a fundamental question here. Do laws respond to the people or is it the people who respond to laws? That is a million dollar question. If it is both, then where is the balance? This is because we would then make policies and laws that are not applicable. As a Parliament, before we pass any form of legislation that may emanate from the policy and/or any other origin, we may want to imagine that we have a socio-economic audit of our value systems so that we do not have a situation where we have a formal non-functional state and an informal non-functional state. This is because of creating a legal regime that is impracticable and that makes people to see that we are in a dysfunctional country and yet we have a value system in this country. I support."
}