Suba North MP Millie Odhiambo Mabona on Friday, March 6, castigated a fellow MP for proposing that single magistrates should not handle child cases.
Taking to her Facebook page, Odhiambo stated that she was ready to oppose the motion by Homa Bay Town MP Peter Kaluma.
"My colleague Hon Kaluma, have you ever heard of the word discrimination in law? If such a law were to see the light of day in Parliament, it would be declared unconstitutional in court," Mabona stated.
"Meanwhile, bring it on, I will oppose. Being single is not a handicap. At this rate, you will soon argue that those who have not given birth should not handle matters relating to children," she added.
The Homa Bay Town lawmaker is pushing for a legislative proposal for Children (Amendment) Bill, 2019 that will lock out single mothers from hearing such cases.
Kaluma, while appearing before the National Assembly Labour and Social Welfare Committee on March 5, argued that that single mothers were 'inexperienced in family matters.'
Additionally, he stated that only magistrates who were married and had experience on how to handle family matters should solve the cases involving the children.
"We need people who are mature and have run families, people who are settled and know that every decision they make can destroy the life of a child completely," he stated.
Further, Kaluma opined that if single magistrates had to preside over these cases, they had to be senior, admitting that there was a scarcity of magistrates.
"Some of those weird orders on child custody are issued by single magistrates who just graduated from school," Kaluma stated.
Kaluma's sentiments come after a video of a minor clinging onto her father and wailing in protest that she shouldn't be handed to her mother went viral in January 2020.
