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{
    "id": 1229954,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1229954/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 187,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Beatrice Elachi (",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Dagoretti North, ODM): Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. From the outset, I just want to thank my Chair, Hon. Wamuchomba and our students who have visited us from Kiota School. I welcome you to Parliament. More importantly, they have come in at a time when we are talking about them and their school uniforms. I want to appreciate that they walked in dressed well. We thank the school and teachers. I will go back to the Motion. I just want to say something to Hon. Wamuchomba. You have come in at a time when I will give you a sad story. I paid school fees for a girl who is supposed to join a school in Kaaga. The parent told me that the child could not go to school because they did not have enough money to pay for that school uniform. Many others from the constituency have already paid school fees, but they do not have money for the uniforms. I want to appreciate that the United Kingdom (UK) that is more advanced than us was talking 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 directed to the only place he can get the school uniform 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 School but could not do so because she did not have school uniforms. 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 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 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 benefit 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. 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."
}