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{
    "id": 1183404,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1183404/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 66,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "programme so that when time comes, before we even go out, we know the people we are targeting. If there is more food, then you can distribute to the rest. This is an extremely important Statement that has been sought. I ask the clerks to bring these sentiments through the Hansard to the Committees so that the issues that I have raised can be addressed in the response. However, the best thing to do in future is to call the Cabinet Secretary here. This is an important area of social protection in this country. These people are the most affected when things are like this. The second one is on the Statement by Hon. Yusuf Hassan addressing financial distress in our public universities. If we are not careful the public universities will collapse. We are getting to a state that I have seen happening in all public institutions and public service. The public universities have been the gold standard. Now they are collapsing and we will get to a point where students do not want to go to these public universities just like we are seeing with health services which are looked down upon. People see public health facilities as third-rate not even second-rate and are only meant for poor people. We should not let it get to that. This is mainly because of the funding of public universities. In his Statement, Hon. Hassan stated that there are differential unit costs. Public universities should be funded in accordance to the number of students and not only this but also the cost of courses that they are undertaking. Definitely, the requirements for engineering are quite different from Bachelors of Arts in Education. Engineering has a much higher cost. That is why we agreed on 80 per cent by the Government and 20 per cent by the universities which has not been met. The numbers and the unit costs have not been looked into. So, universities are not getting adequate funds. Hon. Deputy Speaker, we have another problem as a country where we agreed that the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) can place government sponsored students into private universities. This came about when there was rampant cheating in exams and there were large numbers of students who qualified for universities. When this was sorted out the numbers shrunk. Now the mushroom universities and campuses have no students. We are now looking for a smart way of funding private universities through Government funding. This is something that we need look at. We may need to summon the Cabinet Secretary and raise these issues. There is a problem if university lectures are going for months without pay. In Egerton University the lectures are on half-pay. Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me the opportunity. These are very important Statements."
}