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{
    "id": 976438,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/976438/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 200,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I rise to support. In doing so, I want to be very brief. I want to say that the intention of the Uwezo Fund and even the Women Enterprise Fund was to build capacity of women and enable them to be self-employed especially in times when getting formal jobs is very difficult. However, you notice from the Report that uptake is very low in a lot of the constituencies. The reason is the issue of lack of capacity. What I would wish is that we reform the Fund, so that it would first build capacity and even before we talk about the loan, we give grants. After women and the youth have developed and matured, then we can think about giving loans. I would also want to say that we must, as a Parliament, think of reforming our loan loss because we have situations and circumstances where we find other loaning entities going into homes and creating a crisis. For instance, in my constituency, there are loaning facilities that remove roofs from houses. That is against human rights and it should not be allowed or encouraged. When you deny a person the right to shelter, that is not proper. If somebody has given land as a guarantee, then get the land, but you cannot remove the roof over somebody’s head. Where do you expect them to go? This happens especially to ancestral homes. We even have situations where people’s cattle have been taken away. Even when we are granting the loans, we must also be very clear and knowledgeable about cultural issues. Traditionally, it is presumed that cattle belong to the man. So, when a woman borrows a loan and then you go and take cattle from a home, you are creating a crisis in that home. There are many people who have been divorced because of such things. Those are the recommendations I would want to give to reform the Fund. I support."
}