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{
    "id": 1229911,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1229911/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 144,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emuhaya, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Omboko Milemba",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "time then completely refused that it should be devolved. That is because it is supposed to be a right of the children; meaning then, that this must be funded basically by the Government. Yesterday, we were talking about junior secondary school education, and which we were confronted with the same thing: Who should pay for the cost of education in this country, given that it is a right to all the children in Kenya? Then I would quickly go to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Number 4, which defines education as a lifelong right for all the children and prefers that the first thing we should achieve in education is access. Are children able to access education? That is what we go for first. Once they have accessed, then we look at the other components or matters of quality and so on. Anything that hinders a child from reaching school is a barrier and must be removed. That barrier must be removed by those who have been assigned the task of providing education in Kenya; and that is the Government of Kenya. Therefore, currently as we speak, school uniform is part of the barriers that hinder access to education. That is why this Parliament is speaking about it. We must remove all the barriers that are limiting students to access school, especially the poor students from the villages and poor families. What is the history of school uniform? School uniform can be traced back to England where poor students were taken by the church to a school called the Christian Boarding School, and they were given some sort of uniform which was close to what the clergy was wearing. I think that is where the history of school uniforms sprung from. It went to America and later arrived in Kenya with colonisation. Have we done any studies on school uniform? Yes. The African Journal took the specific study on school uniform. The case study was in Lang’ata, and they produced about 14 good reasons why school uniform should be in place. Hon. Temporary Speaker, who are the leaders in Kenya who have pronounced themselves on school uniforms? You should quickly trace the late Hon. Mutula Kilonzo, the then Minister for Education, who appeared in the Press and talked about school skirts. The cartoonists of that time cartooned him in standard skirts that students were expected to wear. Hon. Gathoni Wamuchomba should listen to this. He thought there must be a certain length of school skirts and uniforms. The other leader who pronounced himself on this matter is the late Former President, Hon. Mwai Kibaki. He ordered that all schools must wear a certain uniform. This is our history of school uniforms. We need to look at the word ‘standardisation’ so that it should not be mistaken for colour or the quality of uniforms to be worn in schools. Standardisation has a lot to do with the price of school uniforms, because this is a barrier to education and it must, therefore, be dealt with. If we can standardise the price of school uniforms, then we will be sorting out this gap that has been created. Again, we must look at how the Kenyan economy operates. Our economy is supposed to be free and liberal. Therefore, as we standardise, we cannot afford to give this to only a group of people. We should possibly allow a free market for uniforms so that their price is controlled by forces of demand and supply. That way, it will be easy to level the price. The other alternative would be for the Government to provide school uniforms. It is the Government’s business to make sure that all the students are in school. This is possible so that within the capitation we send to schools – I heard one Member speak on this – there will be a certain amount of money specifically meant for uniforms. The uniforms will be of particular type in terms of quality and price. With this, no student in Kenya will be chased out of school because of school uniforms. This issue is also embarrassing my teachers. Members are addressing teachers as though they are the ones who determine uniforms in schools. School uniforms are determined by the boards of management and parent-teachers associations, in the presence of teachers. What has happened – and it is not amusing – is that the education system has been completely abandoned 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."
}