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"id": 1049774,
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"speaker_name": "Ugenya, MDG",
"speaker_title": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
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"legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
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"content": "The last time they updated the library in terms of structures was in 1987. So, this Bill, in so far as it will invigorate and rejuvenate the working of the library service in this country, is welcome. This is one area that is under-funded and under-resourced. We hope that by passing this Bill - because after passing it we will be having a new budget being done in the coming month - this Parliament can vote enough resources for that service. We talk about many things like roads, airports and railways but the one most important social infrastructure in any country is a library. Older people in their 60s and 70s know how to read and write. So, instead of looking for homes for old people, we could have libraries where they can go and come up with ideas and share experiences. They will feel welcome in a community. It is Bradbury who said, if you do not have libraries, what do we have? No future! No past! We hope when this vote is finally rejuvenated, they will lend themselves to what now appears in Clause 5. It is a long list. I heard Hon. Millie Odhiambo adding a couple of things there. I will also add some including, for example, working with county governments on community libraries. That is because, at the end of the day, we do not want to have a service with only one running library. We want to encourage community libraries that are run by individuals in communities, help them develop, teach them how to run them and let individuals like us in this House, who are privileged and who are able to contribute books, systems and infrastructure, run those libraries. The best suited institution to run or help establish those county libraries is the county governments. I hope that the board that is going to be set up in this infrastructure will help do that. Most libraries in Kenya today that were built from Independence are in ruins and disuse. So, they will need a lot of resources to renovate, retool and be able to make them a place that can be used. We hope using Clause 5, this new library system, with monies that this Parliament must vote to them without us being told it is not essential, must ensure that they have resources that would enable them implement this particular provision. I have an issue. I have heard Members say that Clause 6 looks good, but it is so top-heavy with Government officials. If you look at it, it is talking about the Principal Secretaries in charge of libraries, finance, education, devolution, information and telecommunication. I advise such boards that the biggest mistake we have made in running boards in this country is making them top-heavy with Government bureaucrats. If we are going to have 11 members and six or five of them are from the Government – and most of the PSs are not appointed because of superior experience in the area most of the time – we will turn the National Library Service Board into a bureaucracy and not a functioning board. I hope this House will agree that we reduce the number of PSs to only two in that board and the rest of the membership can come from amongst the people who understand how libraries are run and who also fit within the framework of what we are proposing as the role of the National Library Service in Clause 5. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I have heard people talk about culture, folklore and heritage. It is a mistake if you make the appointment to this board limited. You limit it in Clause 7 (2) that even members, leave alone the chair must hold degrees. There is a gentleman from Rusinga who used to run Osianala. Hon. Millie, I do not know whether he is alive today. That guy has so much information about the Luo culture and the way Luo systems run and were run. He probably did not have a degree, but he would be more useful to that board than a PS or a PSs' nominee. So, let us not limit the qualification for appointment to a university degree. I would not mind the chairperson having a degree but, for the other members, as long as one has experience in a certain area, lack of a university degree should not deny one a chance to sit in the board. I can tell you for free that training in library services is not something that Kenya has been doing so much. So, you are going to find so many people with a lot of experience in library services and 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."
}