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{
"id": 1498672,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498672/?format=api",
"text_counter": 266,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nyeri Town, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Duncan Mathenge",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I rise to ask the Cabinet Secretary for Education the following Question: Could the Cabinet Secretary- (a) Explain why undergraduate and master’s degree students at the University of Nairobi Dental School are not receiving lecturers and lectures for orthodontics. (b) Elaborate on how students will qualify to graduate without completing the stated required coursework and modules and yet, those are doctors who are supposed to be handling human lives. Thank you, Hon. Speaker."
},
{
"id": 1498673,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498673/?format=api",
"text_counter": 267,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Cabinet Secretary."
},
{
"id": 1498674,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498674/?format=api",
"text_counter": 268,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr Julius Migos Ogamba",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Education",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. The University of Nairobi has clarified that the Dental School continues to deliver orthodontics education despite the transitions in the teaching staff. In particular, two key members of the faculty left. Those were Dr James Ngesa, who resigned in November 2023 and Dr Peter Okong’o, whose contract expired in May 2023. Upon their departure, Dr Nathan Siwa, a senior faculty member, maintained the teaching schedule despite the heavy workload. This has been necessary to ensure continuity. It is important to note that, despite the staffing challenges, the department continues to deliver orthodontics education through multiple teaching modes, including physical and online lectures, tutorials and clinical teaching. The department remains well-equipped with essential facilities, including teaching laboratories, skills laboratories, teaching clinics, lecture theatres and qualified orthodontics technicians. The university has taken steps to remedy the situation. Dr Ngesa has indicated a willingness to return in the course of this month. The university is also taking measures to ensure proper succession management. Orthodontics is a crucial component of multiple academic programmes within the Dental School. It is offered in the Bachelor's Dental Surgery programme through two-course units, VDS 490 and VDS 590. At the post-graduate level, orthodontics is taught as part of the master's dental surgery in oral and maxillofacial surgery under code VMS 590, and the master of dental surgery in paediatric dentistry, which includes two courses, VPE 822 and HDS 6340. The course is also included in the Master of Dental Surgery in Pedantology under the code HDS 6340. The University of Nairobi has implemented comprehensive measures to ensure students complete all required coursework before graduation. In April 2024, the university administration approved a five-week extension programme specifically for year five bachelor of dental surgery students to complete their outstanding clinical rotations and examinations."
},
{
"id": 1498675,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498675/?format=api",
"text_counter": 269,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr Julius Migos Ogamba",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Education",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1498676,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498676/?format=api",
"text_counter": 270,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr Julius Migos Ogamba",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Education",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The strategic measure that the university took was to ensure that students covered all the relevant coursework before graduation, as follows: It was a carefully structured five-week academic extension for final-year dental surgery students to complete 33 hours of essential clinical rotations. The department has successfully covered the syllabus for various orthodontic courses. This extension was granted without additional financial burden to the students. The university's quality assurance mechanisms, including external examination moderation, remain robust. All examinations are conducted with proper oversight being set and moderated by external examiners to maintain academic standards. With those strategic interventions, the university ensures that its students meet all professional and academic requirements in dental education before graduation. I submit."
},
{
"id": 1498677,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498677/?format=api",
"text_counter": 271,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Hon. Mathenge."
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{
"id": 1498678,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498678/?format=api",
"text_counter": 272,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nyeri Town, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Duncan Mathenge",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Speaker, for the information of the Cabinet Secretary, I am in the dental profession as a dental technologist and, therefore, I am in touch with my professional colleagues, including students. Students and their parents, despite not paying anything extra for coursework, incurred accommodation expenses and food for five weeks as a result of the failure of the university to provide lecturers. When you have an entire dental school with only one professor and one lecturer taking both undergraduate and master's students, then the quality of training is definitely highly compromised. I dare the Cabinet Secretary to take a team from this House on a tour of the Dental School. The dental units in the Dental School are hardly functional. Therefore, the clinical output in terms of the clinical hours and contact with patients is not being met. When we look at what is happening at Moi University, we do not want the same thing to happen at the University of Nairobi."
},
{
"id": 1498679,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498679/?format=api",
"text_counter": 273,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Speaker",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you. Yes, Hon. Kaguchia."
},
{
"id": 1498680,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498680/?format=api",
"text_counter": 274,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mukurweini, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kaguchia John",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. In the same breath, on the issue of the University of Nairobi, we seem to be having an administrative challenge where the Chairman of the Council of the University, Prof. Amukowa Anangwe, seems to be wreaking havoc. He seems to have removed the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Stephen Kiama, even though he had only four months to complete his term. Of course, he wished to have the same contract renewed, but he was not only removed as a Vice Chancellor of the university, but his professorship as a faculty member at the University of Nairobi was also revoked. The Cabinet Secretary should explain to us what could be so bad that you sack or remove a university Vice-Chancellor just about four months before his renewal, and then go ahead to sack him as a university professor. That is unheard of and has not been seen in this country before. The same Chairman of the University Council has also transferred many staff from that institution as if he were an executive chairman and yet, he is not supposed to be involved in the day-to-day operations and running of the University. For example, he has transferred the Registrar Administration, Mr Benard Njuguna, to Kisumu, and the Estate Manager, Mr Andrew Buka. The University of Nairobi, again, perhaps, to ensure that the Chairman of the University Council has an overriding say in that University, has ensured that all the senior positions remain vacant. The position of the vice-chancellor is vacant - the same as that of the deputy vice-chancellors. There is no single one in office. Even the finance officer, procurement manager, chief medical officer and chief security officer are not in office and yet, all those are important positions in running the university. In the absence of people in those positions, we have people acting in those capacities. What has happened is that the Chairman of the University Council has now taken on the responsibility to run those positions. I do not know whether the Cabinet Secretary is even aware that the Chairman of the University Council has even secured a house within the University to stay and sleep in!"
},
{
"id": 1498681,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1498681/?format=api",
"text_counter": 275,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mukurweini, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kaguchia John",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}
]
}