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{
    "id": 1049775,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1049775/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 311,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Ugenya, MDG",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David Ochieng’",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2955,
        "legal_name": "David Ouma Ochieng'",
        "slug": "david-ouma-ochieng"
    },
    "content": "would help this system, but have no degrees. You are now locking them out because you are saying that the board members must have university degrees. Therefore, I will move an amendment to remove the university degree requirement for board members so that we get board members from elsewhere, and not necessarily those who have degrees. A healthy nation is a nation that reads. It is a nation that writes. It is a nation that does research. I do not know whether you have checked but, for the last years I have been in this House, I have observed that the budgetary allocations that we have approved for libraries and universities are laughable. In fact, there are years when we do not give universities any money for research. We do not give them any money for running libraries. So, they have to scamper for resources. They have to decide whether they are going to pay salaries for non-teaching staff or teaching staff or run a library. The university I went to, Moi University is lucky because a donor built a library for them. It is called the Margaret Thatcher Library. It is a big facility but if you go there, it is almost empty because the university cannot afford to resource it due to lack of funds. If we are going to make this work, we must put our money where our mouths are. Great libraries build great communities. I heard Hon. Millie Odhiambo say it and I want to just add my voice to it. That, among the Luo community, there was something called Siwindhe.Siwindhe was the kind of thing that probably you run in your counties where young girls are taken through the processes of initiation as they move into adulthood. The same happens for boys. Those cultural practices have died. Young parents like us are left to our own devices. You do not know how to talk to your children about puberty and adulthood. No wonder the level of drug intake among young people in this country is terribly high. I can tell you that drug abuse in this country is not just a poor man’s problem. The biggest challenge for many rich people that I know, most people who are able that I know, is how to keep their children out of drugs. It is because they did not get a chance to talk to them early. There was no way of nurturing those young people into the next stage. So, I would imagine that having library services working well could also help us bring back some of those ways that were used by the primordial cultures to make those kinds of things work. Now it does not happen because everyone goes to Google. You want to teach your children about puberty and you run to Google . Google does not talk; you can only read. So, even as we laud these processes, I really want to propose that, as Members, we ensure that the services set up are accessible in all locations. Like someone said, let us, at least, have them in every sub-county. Finally, as leaders, let us also have a culture of reading. I am happy for these sittings nowadays because, sometimes, you could prepare by doing research to come and talk in this House, and you are given only three minutes. Members must be encouraged to research and go to the library. I am surprised Hon. Kioni has been in this Parliament for a while and he says he does not know where the library is. That tells you that we are not encouraging the culture of reading as a House. The House Business Committee should also encourage Members to read, so that we are able to always historically apprise ourselves with what is happening in the country. With those many comments, I want to applaud the Leader of the Majority Party and hope that this Bill can be fast-tracked and passed."
}