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{
    "id": 1233843,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1233843/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 332,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nyeri Town, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Duncan Mathenge",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute. I want to thank our colleague, Hon. Tindi Mwale, for moving this Motion. A visit to most of our institutions will reveal that the number of sanitation facilities available for our students in schools are highly out-matched by the numbers. Virtually in every institution, the sanitation facilities are inadequate. In terms of quality standards in our schools, the public health officers rarely visit our schools and yet, the Ministry of Education has a Quality Assurance Department that is staffed with officers. They only collect money when they visit the principals of the schools. Therefore, they keep glossing over glaring inefficiencies and inadequacies in our institutions. This crisis, unfortunate as it is, should serve as a wake-up call. It is time that we have a taskforce that will go round our schools and inspect the facilities that are available in terms of boarding, sanitation and classroom sizes versus the number of students. There is a scramble by school administrators to attract many students to their institutions without looking at the available infrastructure in competition for capitation from the Ministry of Education. Most dining halls in schools have a characteristic smell that informs of the sub-optimal hygienic conditions in the institutions. There is a crave to convert existing schools into boarding schools. Most schools are in the new business of providing food and yet, there is no coherent policy on food purchase, storage, preparation, standards for kitchens and all food handlers. Areas where the utensils that the students use are completely unhygienic and a fertile ground for disease manifestation. If you go to the school clinics and conduct an inspection of drug catalogue, you will find that there is a very high turnover of medication associated with stomach upsets, diarrhoea, hyperacidity and food poisoning. The red flag has been with us for some time. This unfortunate crisis must serve as a wake-up call for all of us to act. I thank our colleague for this Motion. I urge this House to go beyond the talk and passing of Motions. We passed a motion on a policy of feeding in schools and yet, nothing happened. Now this crisis is with us. This House must become more forceful in terms of legislation. I thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for the kind of guidance that you give us young legislators."
}