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{
    "id": 1092289,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1092289/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 46,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker for protecting me from Hon. Kajwang’ and those who are exiting. Hon. Kajwang’ is kindly advising them to exit to Uhuru Park. Maybe he has a plan of swearing in the failed Jubilee candidate, Kariri Njama at Uhuru Park. I was saying, this Petition is indeed true. There was a lot of skewed marking of last year’s KCPE exams. The issue that I want to bring to the attention of the Departmental Committee on Education and Research and why I mention the budgetary allocation that we allocated to the Ministry of Education is simple. I have no fear of contradiction when I state before this House that if there is a headquarters of corruption in Government today, it is in the Ministry of Education and Jogoo House in particular. The skewed results are not a reflection of failed systems in public schools but it is because the Ministry was not able to facilitate public schools to be able to teach children during the seven months or nine months that they were at home, while private schools continued teaching them online. Remember how embarrassed and ashamed I am standing here, having been elected on a Jubilee ticket in 2013 and having promised the children of Kenya laptops and tablets. Nine years down the line the tablets that were provided to schools are now gadgets that rot in stores and small cupboards that were built in those schools. I am speaking about the rot in the Ministry of Education. I had occasion this recess to visit Karai Day Mixed Secondary School in my constituency. Last year, we appropriated some money in this House for construction of extra classrooms to ease congestion in order to comply with the COVID-19 protocol of keeping social distance. When I visited that school, I was ashamed to find that the Ministry sent a contractor to build a super structure, which is basically a shell – just the masonry walls with no plastering or windows, and just roofing – at a cost of Kshs1.2 million. This is the same amount of money that the Members of this House use to build classrooms to completion at less than Kshs1 million shillings. I chaired the Budget and Appropriations Committee and when we asked the National Treasury to set aside the money to be disbursed for construction of extra classrooms in secondary schools as a conditional grant to the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG- CDF), the Ministry of Education objected. I will, in the coming week, be bringing a request for a statement to get the Departmental Committee on Education to go and occasion a forensic audit of all the infrastructure funds that were allocated to the Ministry of Education. Hon. Speaker, we allocated money for desks last year, if you remember. The desks that I saw at Nachu Primary School are made out of chipboards. Only two months after being delivered, the metal parts and the cupboard parts are falling apart. This Petition is a pointer to the failure that persists in the Ministry of Education and the massive corruption that is going on there. Even as we welcome the new Member for Kiambaa – I had occasioned to lead the campaign as the chair of the campaign of UDA in Kiambaa – I was ashamed at the state of public schools in Kiambaa. It is indeed a challenge to my brother. We have offered, together with Hon. Ndindi Nyoro, to the people of Kiambaa good benchmarking in Kikuyu and Kiharu for them to see how they can utilise the NG-CDF to change the lives of the children of Kiambaa. I congratulate the Member for Kiambaa and urge him, as he joins this House, not to carry the bad manners of swearing people in, not to carry the bad manners of shouting in the Chamber but to engage in meaningful debate that will change the lives of the people of Kiambaa. I discover that there is a big problem of unemployment in Kiambaa. There is also a big problem of drug and alcohol abuse. The Member, as we welcome him, has a huge responsibility within the next one year. I encourage those in Jubilee not to follow the likes of Hon. T.J. Kajwang’ and their leaders 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."
}