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"speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
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"content": "society in this county who would like to take care of an extra child, but are unable to do so. Mr. Speaker, Sir, apart from providing the physical needs of a child – clothing, shelter, food and healthcare – the emotional needs of a child are equally extremely important. A child needs to be brought up where there is some parental care, whether it by their own parents or by foster parents. Children need to be brought up in an environment where they have siblings and establish real connections, instead of putting 1,000 or 2,000 children in an accommodation which should ideally have 100 or 200 children. There has been hesitation by the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Services towards enacting legislation to monitor the children’s homes that are in existence. The Committee advised the Ministry to stop the registration of new children’s homes until there is a framework for proper foster care and integration of children. There must be a framework to monitor the children’s homes that exist currently. Sen. (Dr.) Zani defended this Bill by saying that we cannot say that we are moving to a foster care system, yet there are currently children who are suffering in the unregulated children’s homes. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is a function that is almost concurrent. In the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution, there are some children’s homes that are under the national Government, while some are under the county governments. In Nairobi County, there is a boys’ children’s home in Bahati, which is under the county government; and girls’ children’s homes in Kayole and Kariokor. The county governments are trying, but we do not have a standardized operating procedure between the national and county governments. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I was recently accompanied by a group of people who refer to themselves as ‘Team Sakaja’ to Bahati, where we went to share a meal with a children’s home. We took gifts, cooked for the children and had a very good time together. However, when we posted the photos of the visit on social media platforms, some people commented that they knew some of the children from different parts of the country, such as Eldoret. After that, I concluded that there is no such thing as street children. The children on the streets are our children. The children on the streets were not given birth to by the streets, but by our sisters and mothers. There is no parent who willingly wants their child out on the streets. Mr. Speaker, Sir, some parts of this country have strong cultural values, such that even after the post-election violence of 2007/2008, no Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps were set up there. It is not because there were no persons who were displaced there, but because it is taboo to leave people to suffer out there. Consequently, the IDPs from some communities were integrated. Unfortunately such IDPs never became beneficiaries of compensation. For instance, there were IDPs from Kakamega, Bungoma and Vihiga, but they were taken up into families. The families that took in the IDPs do not necessarily have the resources, but they have strong family values. I do not mean that strong family values do not exist in other parts of the country, but it seems that it is stronger in some parts of our country. After that, Mr. Speaker, Sir, it was really heartbreaking, because when we went back to those children – and I know many of them – some of them told me that they 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."
}