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{
    "id": 718205,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/718205/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 149,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kipyegon",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1453,
        "legal_name": "Johana Ngeno Kipyegon",
        "slug": "johana-ngeno-kipyegon"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. Before I even make my contribution, I would like to say this is my first time talking in the New Year. I welcome and thank everybody including you. I congratulate you for moving to the New Year; the year of so many things; the year of opportunities, and; also the year which is scaring most people, especially in this premise. It is because we are also going to be facing another round of elections. I just want to wish everybody a happy New Year, a prosperous future and good and peaceful campaigns in this country. Secondly, I thank the Member for Busia County for this amendment to the law. I have just read and most of us have also gone through it a little bit, we must understand that this Bill is good. We will be bringing up some new amendments to the amendments so that we have it properly in place. The most interesting parts which caught my eye in this Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill are the issues of minors. I mean the young girls whom sometimes the law does not properly define. We normally have what we call “defilement.” Sometimes the issues in that defilement are not as serious as those ones in rape. I think we should also be looking at how we can also make defilement more serious like a rape case. It is so that our young daughters and young boys who some people engage in sodomy can also have justice properly meted to those people who commit those offences. Another issue which caught my attention seriously is this question of plea bargaining. Rape and defilement is a very serious offence which normally affects not only the person who has raped or defiled but also the community and even the family. When these matters are committed, you know it usually affects the person health wise, mentally and also socially. Sometimes when people decide to go for plea bargain, usually it is in situations or cases where it affects minors. That is a situation where the minor herself cannot even have a serious contribution in the bargaining. It could also be either the parents or the guardians who these minors are under the care. We can have this plea bargain on other cases. For this one, I tend to believe it is a very serious offence and we should not allow it to happen in our society. A person who defiles a young person must understand that, that young person is not only defiled sexually but has also been affected mentally for the rest of her life. We should not allow this. This thing has been going on even in our schools where young girls are impregnated. Then, instead of justice being meted, there are these negotiations between the parents that: “you marry off this girl; we finish the issue; you pay dowry, and; the matter dies.” This is promoting serious dropouts among our girls. We are making this an issue that affects the education of our daughters. 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."
}