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{
    "id": 948258,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/948258/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 357,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Prof.) Jacqueline Oduol",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 856,
        "legal_name": "Dennitah Ghati",
        "slug": "dennitah-ghati"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. At the outset, I find this Report not really rising to the objectives that it set. As we look at the Report on the Motion, it is clear that the Committee set to gather information, visited the country so that they would gather as much information as possible on the ground that would help them to establish the welfare of workers that work in Saudi Arabia. The objectives that are set in the Report were really to deal with the welfare of Kenyans and to follow up on leads that had come through the media and many sources. It is clear from the Report that there is a way in which – as was indicated by some of the speakers last time – the Report itself could have been very well done here without going to the ground to look at what is taking place. This would have been done without specifically asking issues that we know are common in Saudi Arabia. I would like, in particular, to draw the attention of the House to the manner in which when we talk about migrant workers, unlike what the Report is telling us, it would appear that when people are skilled and educated, they choose to migrate to look for work on their own volition. In the Report we are told that there are a number of skilled and educated persons who migrate. Looking at the gender dimension, there are a number of women who travel to Saudi Arabia and who do so on their own volition with recognition that they would go and could possibly not only ease unemployment. This is because they would get employment, but they would also be able to get some earnings. The Report indicated how it seems the labour laws are being respected and how the payment is done. On context, I would like to say that part of the reason why I find this Report unsatisfactory is that we are aware that there are cases when contract slavery, particularly of domestic workers, has been used to legitimise a practice that is extremely unethical, particularly for those of the female gender. As we saw on the Floor today, when you ridicule a woman or use sexual innuendo or come up with untold imagery and cause a lot of injury to women, it has nothing to do with their education. Women could be educated to whatever level; they could be doctors, politicians, or renowned in various fields. However, when we have a society that chooses to not only demean those of a given gender, but also seek to support ways in which those workers can be used beyond acceptable levels of domestic work, then it becomes an issue. I am particularly concerned because slavery was abolished in Saudi Arabia quite recently in 1962 and in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - according to the research that we have available - in 1963. Therefore, if you belong to a society where you have people coming to work for you and those people are seen to belong to you, I would have expected the Committee to use that differential to establish the exact manner in which we could have contracts for domestic 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."
}