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{
    "id": 1057631,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1057631/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 420,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiambu CWR, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Gathoni Wamuchomba",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13244,
        "legal_name": "Gathoni Wamuchomba",
        "slug": "gathoni-wamuchomba"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I rise to support the mediated version of the Early Childhood Education Bill (Senate Bill No.26 of 2018) because first of all, as a young mother, I feel like finally we have breathed out because of the very many areas of discrimination that we have seen in our counties when it comes to the administration of ECD. When I was growing up, we never used to have an entry point to the EDC in Kiambu County. Our parents used to take us to the centres, and all we could do was to stretch out our hands over our heads and attempt to touch the ear on the opposite side of the hand. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I hope you can see me because Speakers do not see until they are told to look. So I want you to look at me. That was the examination and that was the entry point. You can imagine children who were born with small stamina. You can imagine how long it took them to stretch their hands across the head to touch the ear on the opposite side of the hand. That is to tell you that the children who were born with small stamina, small bodies, little people and children with special needs really were discriminated against for many years. Even in those centres, we do not have experts for children with special needs. Children with special needs are normally dumped in the centres and struggle along the way. Some have difficulties in speech, others in sight and others in hearing. We have not had a county that has come out strongly to tell us that they have enlisted the services of special teachers or special expertise to attend to children with special needs. So I am very excited because of the harmonisation that has been done through this Bill. Finally, we have hope that children with special needs are going to get special attention through special centres that have been prescribed by the Bill. I have been sympathising with ECD teachers especially in my county. In the previous government we had a campaign to map out teachers that were apparently drinking children’s porridge. They were not drinking the porridge, but they were selling the porridge because they did not have salaries to maintain themselves in the centres. It was pathetic. I am grateful now, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you will allow me to applaud my current governor because he has done something that I do not think any other county has done. He has made sure that all ECD teachers in Kiambu County have been put on permanent and pensionable terms. They have been given a medical cover and on top of that, they have joined a corporate society for ECD teachers in Kiambu County. He has gone ahead and put Kshs1 million as seed capital in that Sacco. That is appreciating the efforts of ECD teachers in my county. How I hope that most of the counties are going to take the cue, do what my county has done, and even do it better, by making sure that every teacher who has been employed to take care of our toddlers has been appreciated in that manner."
}