National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula has asked UNICEF to consider including the support of the boy child in their advocacy programs.
Wetang’ula said the boy children were an “endangered species” after most of the organizations championing the rights of children directed all their arsenals towards girls at the expense of boys.
“The boy child in Kenya is suffering in silence. All efforts have been put into uplifting the girl child. UNICEF should intervene because they have the capacity,” said the Speaker.
Wetang’ula made the remarks when he hosted UNICEF Kenya Representative Dr Shaheen Nilofer who paid him a courtesy call in his office at Parliament Buildings on Thursday.
Deputy Speaker Hon Gladys Boss and Migori County MP Hon Fatuma Zainab were present.
Said Wetang’ula: “UNICEF has done well in uplifting the girl child. They have gotten the girl from the kitchen to the table.”
He added: “The boy child has been forgotten in this journey and this might lead to a society that is not balanced.”
He noted the need to formulate policies that can also safeguard the rights of the boy child for equality in society.
He lamented that even in his Catholic church during church service, girls are at the forefront during worship as they take part in liturgical dancing while boys are left to watch at the periphery.
The Speaker assured that the National Assembly is ready to work with UNICEF to support their programs that are geared towards alleviating poverty and ensuring equality in the society.
“The National Assembly is ready to collaborate and work with UNICEF because the organization is a very important partner to the government,” he added.
He observed that UNICEF has been able to comfortably operate in the country because they discharge their duties without wagging their fingers at the government.
He assured that he would ensure all the Committees that are relevant to programs undertaken by UNICEF were available and collaborate to drive their agenda home.
Dr Nilofer pointed out that the National Assembly was a critical wing of government noting that collaboration was necessary to actualisation of their agenda.
“UNICEF has closely worked with ministries and other government entities in our work and collaboration by the National Assembly will be a big win for us in our efforts to achieve our goal,” she added.
She added that UNICEF had stepped up campaigns to promote the rights of children in the country but added that there was still a lot to be done.
“Kenya has achieved a lot on matters of children’s rights but it is still worrying that 2.5 million children are out of school because of various reasons,” she added.
She noted that they were putting measures in place to ensure that the children access education as she called on National Assembly’s support on the same.
She said that UNICEF will continue to support various programmes in the Agriculture, Education, and Social Protection sectors noting that they were critical to the we’ll bring of people.
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