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{
    "id": 1078508,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1078508/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 30,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. John Mbadi (",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "nation and to them. This law was passed by the 10th Parliament, as Hon. Duale has said. The person who inserted that amendment – and I hope I am not wrong – is the Leader of the Majority Party, Hon. Amos Kimunya. It was passed when some of our colleagues in Parliament who did not have degrees then did not know that we were passing it. I want to give you the magnitude of the problem if you do not have a degree. I remember clearly that we passed the amendment. One of my colleagues who did not have a degree then approached me in the lobby. He asked me if it was true that we had passed the said amendment that was going to bar anyone who did not have a degree from contesting. I told him “yes.” He was shocked because he was inside Parliament. The said Member of Parliament is still in this House. I do not know whether he now has a degree. I do not want to say who he is. Immediately thereafter, there was lobbying. The said Members went to the President. I remember some of them approached my party Leader and requested us to do something. One of the Members who petitioned the President now has a degree because he is a governor of a county. There is enough time, like it was then. I spoke to this matter at a public function immediately after the 2017 general elections and it became a national debate. I told members of the county assemblies (MCAs) who did not have university degrees to go back to school in good time, and a demonstration was organised by some of my opponents. They asked women to demonstrate against me in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa. I do not know why it turned out to be a women affair. In Kisumu and Mombasa, they called and told me that they were not going to demonstrate against me. The Nairobi ones went ahead with their demonstrations. However, I told them that I was like Noah when he was making the Arc. He told the people then: “Rain is coming. Please, take cover.” But some of them did not. When we reach 2022, you will know that I was a prophet. That hour of reckoning has now come. The MCAs who were saying “Mbadi is abusing us” should know that I was their friend. If you still do not have a degree, please, it is too bad for you. This House is hostile to any other extension from the way I look at it. How do you expect the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee in my County Assembly to be someone who does not have a university degree, like is the case in Homa Bay County? Surely, how? Let us be serious. You expect the Chair of the Budget and Appropriations Committee, like Hon. Kanini Kega here, looking at the Budget Estimates and yet, the membership of that Committee has people who have not gone beyond Standard VII or VIII just because we are politically correct? Let us retain this law as it is. I request the Committee not to ever give this Petition a thought or propose an amendment through a Statute Law (Miscellaneous) Amendments Bill. Instead, the Report they should bring here should affirm it and have those Members who still do not have university degrees barred from contesting. We have other positions where they can still serve this country very well. You can be appointed to some committees in the constituencies and other places. This law must stand. Thank you."
}