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    "id": 808956,
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    "content": "Thank you very much Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. For sure, the highest paid earners in the world nowadays are those in sports. When you think of the salary of Cristiano Ronaldo - which runs into several millions in a week - we need to nurture the talent of our youth. When we do this, we draw their attention away from drugs, alcoholism and immorality. I do not have to repeat all those benefits that come with nurturing the talent of our youth, especially those in our rural areas. It is shameful that in this world, those that win gold medals in javelin are not Maasais, Samburus and Turkanas. Those people play and use those javelins for sport from childhood. If we can nurture them and their talent, we can increase the number of gold medals that we get. I just want to bring to the attention of this House that when we went for the Paralympics last year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, there was an Olympics team of persons without disabilities and there was a Paralympics team. The team of those without disabilities had 89 athletes and they won 13 medals in total. That is roughly 14 per cent. There were nine athletes with disabilities and they won six medals for this country. That is almost 70 per cent. There is no medal that has disability. You can imagine if we had 89 athletes with disabilities, this country would have had more than 60 medals. Because of prejudice that is applied to persons with disabilities, you find that it is very difficult to include persons with disabilities in sports. I am also ashamed that we have discussed this Motion for the second day and it is only Hon. Ghati - who is also a person with disability - who has mentioned sports involving persons with disabilities. We are talking about 10 per cent of the total population of this country and we are ignoring it even in the House that makes laws. None of the Hon. Members who have contributed to this Motion have mentioned persons with disabilities, apart from persons with disability themselves. That is why, sometimes, we feel that even inside this House, our issues are not taken very seriously. For sure, you have a neighbour, friend or relative with disability. They are also human beings with feelings. There are children and youth who need to play and we need to nurture their talent. When we develop those sports academies, let us consider nurturing the talent of youth with disabilities. Let us consider accessibility to those academies. Sometimes, when those academies are not accessible to persons with disabilities, they will prejudice against them and they may not participate in sports. There is no medal that has disabilities when it is earned for this country. When I was in Rio de Janeiro where we earned six medals, three of them were gold medals and the flag of Kenya was raised high. It was not raised half-mast because it was won by a person with disability. The national anthem was not sung halfway but in full because a gold medal is a gold medal and no gold medal has a disability. I urge this House that whenever you consider the rest of the population, let us also consider persons with disability. Thank you, Hon. Ghati and Prof. Oduol for considering the issues of persons with disabilities. I urge all of us to also consider those people whenever we discuss important issues including floods. Persons with disabilities are The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}