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"id": 953146,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/953146/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nyando, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Jared Okelo",
"speaker": {
"id": 13457,
"legal_name": "Jared Odoyo Okelo",
"slug": "jared-odoyo-okelo-2"
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"content": " I thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I rise also on the same breath to put more weight on this Amendment Bill by supporting it. No one chooses where to be born. If we had that latitude, I would have chosen to be born within the President’s family, but I ended up being where I am because I had absolutely no choice. Therefore, issues pertaining to adoption and the circumstances around it are very important that if a child is in a desperate need to be adopted, we have to put a level- playing field for this to occur, particularly children born within Kenya, brought up in Kenya and have to be adopted in Kenya. I am very pleased that two weeks ago, the Government of the Republic of Kenya applied breaks on foreign adoption, because we understand certain times the conditions our children have to go through when adopted by foreigners. Some of them carry out adoption as a way of carrying out child trafficking. When our children get into foreign lands, the conditions available to them and the kind of discrimination they have to go through andbeing denied food and essential commodities, is something that must absolutely be addressed. Therefore, I am very glad that the Government of Kenya said that they are carrying out a ban towards child adoption by foreigners in this country. That, therefore, brings the most critical point: How benevolent are we? How charitable are we? How generous are Kenyan people going to be so that they can help children who are in need? Children end up on the streets not because they want to be there, but because there are harsher conditions at home, therefore they choose streets as recourse. Therefore, we must, in retrospect, carry out charitable activities that would offer an enabling environment to our children to thrive. Each and every kid is born with inalienable rights. That is bit number one. Bit number two is that every child is endowed with unique talents. Every child has a future that the Creator has bestowed within him or her. Therefore, we are not going to be deterrence in their progress just because we are denying them opportunities to thrive in whatever field that God gave them. We must open our doors in order to embrace them and keep them within our borders and offer them certain inalienable rights such as access to education, access to healthcare as enshrined under Article 43 of the Constitution and give them an enabling environment for them to be responsible citizens in future. Children are gifts from God. That is what the Bible states. We must hence put a lot of emphasis on their success. That, therefore, harshly indicts parents. We have seen how social media have unduly influenced our children and as a result they are carrying out activities that would be taboos in most communities. Just about a week ago, a video was trending on social media of a very young kid, barely 12 years, spewing vitriol and unprintable words to his colleague. These are things that we have to look into carefully. The children that we raise today, we are going to make them leaders tomorrow. We would not wish to have leaders who will be insulting their colleagues or insulting the people that they lead. We want responsible citizens; those who will take over from us and perpetuate the wellbeing of this nation. We have to, as parents, get to know how our children are doing, whether we are with them or not. I understand that economic pressure has made it absolutely difficult to superintend our children, both at home and in schools. Parents have given that responsibility to teachers in schools. Teachers have, owing to the Basic Education Act, applied breaks on what they used to call corporal punishment for kids. Therefore, even if kids do not do according to the will of the teachers, the assumption is that the parents back home will be carrying out their cardinal responsibilities. So you have a kid who is a boss in school and a boss at home; parents relegating 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."
}