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{
    "id": 1214134,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1214134/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Beatrice Elachi (",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "about school uniforms for their children that have become very expensive in September 2022. They passed a legislation in Parliament that says that parents can walk into any school uniforms shop and buy them. When we go back to the days we went to school, our parents walked into any Kenya School Uniform shop and they could afford school uniforms then. The international schools are better off than our public schools today. When they walk into a Kenya School Uniform shop, their school uniforms are more affordable than those for public schools. A parent is first of all told the only place he can get the school uniform, especially when students have joined school. He is told where the tailor is and that is where he has to go. I am saying this from experience. Last year, just before the elections, I found a girl who was supposed to join Precious Blood and picked her. What is sad is that I had to go and look for the uniform. Today, Hon. Wamuchomba gives us an opportunity to look at this issue of school uniforms and ask ourselves as citizens of this country, without bringing in the malice of business or profit, where we went wrong. This happened when we decided education can be a profitable industry. It has become so profitable not only just with textbooks, but also…We have now to question ourselves again. With the current economy, many parents cannot afford school uniforms. Look at our Economic Processing Zones (EPZs). We have 20 per cent share of tax-free place. That 20 per cent can be used to make uniforms and then they are sent to schools. Then, they are sold cheaply to parents, so that they can afford them. We can also promote our tailors. Let them go to some of the EPZs and be trained, so that when you look at that school uniform, you appreciate that, indeed, it has been done neatly and you will be proud. We do not want to put our children into a quagmire. When they look at their uniforms, they wonder how they were made. Uniforms are very important because they bring equality to a child in school. That is why I support what the Member for Bahati has just said. Each school can retain its uniform for purposes of respect, values and discipline. Each school has its discipline. At that time, you will point out and know the school that has discipline or one that needs help. Their uniforms can remain the way they are, but with dignity. Every child can walk into that school with uniform. There is nothing as proud as when you carry a child who has just joined Form One, and look at her makeover from the uniform and the clothes she walked in. As she wears the uniform, she feels ownership of the school and becomes proud of it and will work hard to keep its name. As I finalise, Hon. Temporary Speaker, I want to thank Hon. Wamuchomba. We should not look at the school uniforms as a business again. Let us not come and curtail it for the sake of others to gain. Let us do it for the prosperity of our children and for the parents to afford them and ensure that each child in Kenya can walk into a school and be proud of it. Lastly, let junior high schools have a new uniform. We have already told them they are joining there. They can walk in with even a trouser and a nice shirt because the parents cannot afford new uniform. I pray that we make sure they walk in and understand that they are walking into a junior high school. They will be proud to remain in that school knowing they have moved to another level. With those few remarks, I support the Motion. I hope we will stand together and have a Bill that will clear the menace of school uniforms being very costly. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
}