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{
    "id": 718746,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/718746/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 107,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "of the camp, get integrated and contribute as taxpayers, as employers and as good citizens of our country. Hon. Daniel Maanzo brought up the issue of the purported amendment to the Sexual Offences Act to reduce the age of consent from 18 to 16. This is a very sensitive issue. I have listened carefully to the feedback from many people in this country who are very concerned and they think 16-year-olds are too young. I agree that 16-year-old is still a child. No boy can decide that at 16 they are ready to be a father with those responsibilities. They should be in school completing their education and gaining skills to become parents at a later date. Studies all over the world have shown that 16-year-old is still a child and should not be a bride in the case of girls, and that girls who get into motherhood and become wives at a later date do much better than girls who get married off too young, without proper education, independence and psychological maturity, even physical maturity of their bodies. We should reject the proposal to turn the age of maturity from 18 to 16 for consent. There are a lot of people involved in paedophile and paedophilia and taking advantage of young people to bring them into sexual activity. We should oppose that. We should make sure that even if we are trying to save the boy-child, because under the current Sexual Offences Act, there is the issue that many boys have been victimised, taken to court and sentenced to prison because of engaging in sexual activities with underage girls of their age group, we should be careful. There is the Romeo and Juliet principle where youths and minors of certain age groups play it safe. For children within a five year age range, it is a different case. A boy and a girl aged 18 and 17 years respectively should not engage in sexual relations. However, if they do, because they go to the same school, we must appreciate that their case is very different from that of an adult aged 50, 60 or 70 going to a school to prey upon 16-year-old girls. Therefore, while we need to look at that subset of issues of the Romeo and Juliet principle, we must ensure that all our children are protected. Sixteen year old boys are too young to give consent and make those decisions just as 16-year-old girls are too young to become brides. They are children we should be educating them to become the next generation of leaders in our country. I think that is really important. That section on sexual offences should be amalgamated with the proposals by the Member for Busia County, Hon. Florence Mutua, as contained in her more comprehensive amendments on the Sexual Offences Act that he is moving. I hope he will do that in a speedy manner. I completely support the issue of supervision of dangerous sexual offenders. This is a very important issue. Dangerous sexual offenders are not trapped by whoever employs and engages them to work in the presence of, for instance, young children. We should have a proper database for tracking and monitoring them. We should have a reporting system for sexual offenders who have served their terms and undergone rehabilitation. Even when they are re- integrated into the community, there should be a system of tracking them to establish the activities they might be engaged in. If they are engaged in employment categories where they will be working with vulnerable populations, there must be limitations in the kinds of situations they might work on. Last week we discussed the Privatisation (Amendment) Bill, which was laid on the Table on Thursday afternoon. The 20 or 30 Members who were still in the Chamber then spoke vehemently against the Bill, highlighting the risks involved in moving the powers of privatising companies and appointing the Board of the Privatisation Authority, to the Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury. According to the Bill, all of them should be appointed without the 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."
}