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{
    "id": 1166171,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1166171/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 353,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mwangi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 75,
        "legal_name": "Ephraim Mwangi Maina",
        "slug": "ephraim-maina"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker Sir, President Abraham Lincoln, who did a lot of work for his country, never had a University degree. In Britain, Winston Churchill never had a university degree. John Major also never had a university degree. This country has in the past been ruled by leaders who never had university degrees. When we talk of a lawmaker, we mean a man who is diverse and not necessarily a PhD or a degree holder; a person who looks at issues in many dimensions. When we say we only want three point, five percent of the Kenyan population to be the only ones who can come to this House. What are we going to do to the 96.5 percent? Who is going to represent those without university degrees in this House? This idea had not been well thought of. It is an idea that was brought to Parliament by cowards who thought that they wanted to get rid of those without university degrees from coming to this House. I was in the 7th Parliament and we had Martin Shikuku who could talk for four days consecutively without any other Member talking. We had to change the Standing Orders to facilitate other Members to have a chance to contribute. We have had professors in this Parliament who have never opened their mouths to say a thing. I do not know where we want to take Kenya to. This is a discriminatory law and for that case, I fully support Sen. Murkomen’s suggestion that we get rid of that law in print. You only need to know how to read and write to be in this House. That is what was in this country before. They used have some Kiswahili tests if you had never done Kiswahili in school. They used to have to convene a panel that used to test somebody on whether he or she could speak, and write Kiswahili. The same applied for English. Those who wanted to come to Parliament, even without going to primary school could not be prevented. They could go and contest for people to elect them to come to Parliament. Over the years, we have seen some of the best legislators and not even those you call professors. It is very good to have professors here. However, we should not turn this Parliament into a university. This is Parliament and we should understand it as that. We should deal with deal with parliamentary issues not university issues. Professors who feel that they do not want to come to Parliament can continue teaching at the university."
}