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"id": 950457,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
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"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": "America carrying pictures of malnourished and dying children. In fact, if you look at some of those pictures, they are clipped from the disaster that befell Ethiopia some time back; they are not Kenyan children. Those pictures are picked from all over. They pick a very malnourished child, put him or her next to a child who looks a little better and another one that looks good. They then say where they have picked the child and where they have taken it to. Mr. Speaker, Sir, when you look at the people who purport to run children’s homes, they live like kings. They drive big cars and live in posh areas. I know one who runs a children’s home in a poor neighbourhood in Isinya, and he lives in Lavington. He does not do any other job, apart from running a children’s home. The children are his tools of trade. This is how inhuman we have become. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if this Bill by Sen. (Dr.) Zani has to be given full effect, this House must, in our budgeting process, acknowledge that we have a serious problem of disadvantaged children in Kenyan families in each county that needs to be looked after, and provide resources for them. There is absolutely no reason why each county cannot do that. I am not advocating for children from poor families to be put together in one institution; that is not the way to integrate children. In Bungoma County, I would want to see children from disadvantaged families mixing with children from schools like Marell Academy, Misikhu Boarding School, Lugulu Boarding, and others. This can be seen in the legacy left in Starehe Boys Centre by the late Dr. Griffins, who routinely picked children from the poorest of the poor and put them in Starehe Boys Centre. He allowed the children of Annuars, Cheruiyots, Mbitos and Beth Mugos to go to the same school; and obligated them to pay fees that would cover three or five other children from poor families in an endowment process. Mr. Speaker, Sir, one of my sons went to Starehe Boys Centre, and I was paying fees for five other children whom I did not know of, from form one up to form four. That is what Dr. Griffins did, and he left Starehe Boys one of the top schools. Of course, the story of Starehe Boys is not the same today, because those who came in after him were more interested in titles and many other trappings. You would find Dr. Griffins, with all his knowledge, walking from Starehe Boys Centre to the City Centre; while these people cannot walk from Starehe Boys Centre to Kariokor because they are ‘big’ people. That is the pain that Africa goes through. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I urge that when we pass this Bill, Sen. (Dr.) Zani obligates the national Government, in cooperation with the county governments, to provide a special vote in the budget for setting up a children’s homes in each and every county. They will not be for children from poor backgrounds, but for the children to integrate. Whether a child is from Mathare, Kibra, Muthaiga or Lavington, they must meet and integrate, as Kenyans. In fact, most children from those poor neighbourhoods are hard working in school than some of our children. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want Sen. (Dr.) Zani to strengthen the criminal responsibility of charlatans who turn children into instruments of trade. One bishop and his wife are in jail for routinely trafficking children from here to the United Kingdom (UK) every time they come to Kenya, including the extreme criminality of faking pregnancies and telling 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."
}