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"speaker_name": "Sen. Cherargei",
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"legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
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"content": "and participate on social media pages, but they do not realize that they are being taken advantage of. We should try to avoid glorifying some of these issues on social media. I have seen social policing by Ezekiel Mutua. He has been complaining about the watershed period in the media. This is when we need the media to assist us. I am happy that the Cabinet Secretary for Education noted that the issue of early teenage pregnancies has come down this year when we were concluding the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams. However, that is not the real issue. We want to see how we can assist young mothers. For some of us who grew up in a home where some of our siblings were early mothers, we know the pain of these children. They never recover because of the community stigma. Where I come from, at least now we have improved. In the neigbouring Kakamega County, when a child who is in Class 7 or 8 or Form 1 or 2 gets pregnant, you realize that the parents no longer want to take that child to school. They say that for her to learn the lesson the hard way, she should stay at home and not go to school. However, with this establishment of care centres, readmission to school should be taken with the seriousness it deserves. Where I come from, many girls were very bright. Unfortunately, when they got pregnant and gave birth, their parents insisted that they be married off because of the stigma. That is the sad reality that we have in our communities. I hope this law will be able to assist. I urge parents that if their girl gets pregnant and they give birth, they still have a right to go back to school. There is a way the parents can support. They can get maids to ensure that that child goes back to school. This brings me to my second point which is re-admission of the school dropouts. We need confidentiality. When it comes to amendments, Sen. Kwamboka and I will try and look at how to make it punishable if confidentiality is betrayed. If the school, teachers or even the school management expose that child ‘A’ or ‘B’ has a child, you can imagine the effect it will have on that young girl. We should tighten on the issue of confidentiality. The custodian of that information and protection of confidentiality should be the teachers, the school management or the school board. The third point is on the issue of reproductive health. I was reading an article in the Sunday Standard . They were saying how the children are on a two month holiday. Some of you parents who have teenagers already know what the problem is. It is a pity that some parents in this country have given up. They have decided to put their young girls on contraceptives to prevent early pregnancies. That shows that we should have a conversation as a country. This is the right time for us to discuss reproductive health and that includes abortion. The Constitution is very clear on it, but one can be pregnant after rape. What do they do? How do we assist them? There are many people who have been The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}