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{
    "id": 697391,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/697391/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 96,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Nyasuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 590,
        "legal_name": "Gladys Atieno Nyasuna",
        "slug": "gladys-atieno-nyasuna"
    },
    "content": "This Paper has been long overdue. It has been pending here for a while and I am happy that there could be no better time to have it come for adoption on the Floor of this House. This is the week that we have seen some very serious violation of children in this country. I cannot proceed without really condemning the act by MCAs in Kisii County, taking children for a weekend outing. I condemn that in the strongest terms. I want to tell them that if they want to educate children, they must do it with white chalk and not black chalk. Children are threatened by many factors. My colleagues have cited the statistics within this Policy, including that children are 50 per cent of Kenya’s population as per the 2009 census. Also, very importantly, 80 per cent of children live in rural areas. Therefore, we must really focus. The pillars of this Policy, which include child survival, are very important to look at. We cannot talk about children without talking about families because getting strong children or getting well moulded children is very dependent on having strong and well-founded families. When we talk about child survival, we know that life begins at conception and that we must look very seriously at antenatal care. We must also look very seriously at this free maternity service that was started. Is it really working? Are our mothers truly giving birth for free or are they still required to bring cotton wool, basins and to pay money for gloves? That is a big question that we have to ask. When we look at child development, there is the very important aspect of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE). This is a devolved function. We challenge our counties to take very seriously the role of putting up ECDE centres. If the paediatrician, Hon. (Dr.) Nyikal, was here he would tell us that a lot of development and a lot of the things that we carry along in life begin at this very early stage. So, our counties must take very seriously the issue of early childhood education because when you go to some of these ECDE centres, many of our children are learning under trees and under very difficult circumstances. Thanks to the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF), many of the upper primary classrooms are very well developed but ECDE is still wanting. When we look at child development, we must also look at the ethical issues. When we demand to know how our children are performing in school academically, we must also discuss issues of how they are developing ethically. What values are they carrying along? Are our children going to church, mosques and temples to also have that element of spiritual development? On child protection, I have already said that our children must be protected from sexual abuse as much as we can. We are looking forward to any amendments to the Sexual Offences Act so that we can make it more punitive. I think we have made a lot of progress on child participation. We see that schools now have presidents, governors, women representatives and senators. We also have a children’s parliament that is up and running. I think as far as enhancing participation of children is concerned, there has been a lot of progress. This is a very welcome move and I support the adoption of Sessional Paper No. 6 of 2014 on the National Children Policy."
}