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{
    "id": 1166079,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1166079/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 261,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": "The other unreasonable thing about this academic qualification - and I will show you how ridiculous it is - is that it says if you have a degree you qualify to run for office, but if you have a diploma in law, you do not qualify to run for MP. Imagine that nurse who has a diploma in nursing from Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC), that clinical officer, that person who studied radiology from KMTC and practiced. If you go to hospitals, these are the people who do scans and nursing. They are the clinical officers treating Kenyans, having gone to school for almost four years, equivalent to the person with a degree. However, since they do not have a paper written “degree,” you tell us that although he is a clinical officer, nurse or radiologist; he is qualified, has studied and worked to treat people, he cannot qualify to hold office of a Member of Parliament. This is because they do not have a paper written “degree” and yet, these are professionals of high calibre Think about your teacher in high school. Probably, your high school teacher went to Kenya Science Teachers College in either Nyeri or Nairobi. Those days they were only three. My Physics and Chemistry teachers had gone to Kenya Science Teachers College. He was one of the best physics teachers in the Republic; they were the ones setting exams. Now tell me, that Physics teacher, qualified with a diploma, has retired and wants to be an MP of his constituency somewhere in western Kenya. Then, Mr. Misiko is told that he is not qualified to run for the MP. That although he has produced so many graduates, is well read and a professional with knowledge in Physics globally, he is not qualified to come to this Chamber to become an MP. However, a person who has gone to some college, qualified and got a degree in leadership - and you cannot even verify properly how they went through this education process--- Maybe they even got E’s from first year to fourth year, but because they carry a paper called a “degree,” they are more qualified than that professional who has served the country in different capacities. We encourage our youth to go to Technical Training Institutions (TTIs) and tell them that when they go there they will become professionals with engineering knowledge who can dismantle an engine of a vehicle, work on it and restore it. They can drive a car safely. How then can you say that such a person cannot run for office and become a Member of Parliament because he does not have a university degree? Sen. M. Kajwang’ think of a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) in Kenya. That person may not have a formal degree, but if he sat in this House, he or she would scrutinize the accounts of county governments better than most of us who have other degrees that are unrelated to accounting. However, since that person does not have a degree, it is said that they are not qualified. The unfairness of picking a university degree as the only qualification to become a Member of Parliament is ridiculous. A CPA-K holder studies longer to get that qualification than the person who has gone for a bachelor’s degree in leadership in some universities. I do not want to mention the name of any university. Let us just assume that person has obtained a degree from some university operating on the third-floor of a building in River Road and there is a bar below that university."
}