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{
    "id": 1249226,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1249226/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 324,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "It is true that they have not only misled our children to go to private universities to get half-baked education, but they have also enticed innocent students from villages, as Hon. Wamboka says, who do not know what it would take when they get into those universities. Many of them end up dropping out. Even as they drop out, the money that is allocated to those children continues to be sent to those universities, yet the students dropped out of school. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, I want to ask you, probably at a later date, to tell this House whether your Ministry has instigated or instituted any forensic audit to establish the actual number of students attending classes in those private universities. Speaking from experience in my constituency, I have many students seeking to transfer to public universities. Some have succeeded while others have moved to the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) because they were enticed to study nursing in private universities. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you are telling us that they are going to these private universities because the universities offer nursing courses and we do not have capacity in our public universities. Why do we not enhance the capacity of public universities to offer nursing courses instead of sending our students to private universities where they drop out after the first year to join the KMTC and other tertiary-level colleges? The Government continues to pump money into businesses and cartels that took over the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service and the Universities Fund Board (UFB). I am not ashamed to say that. I want the Cabinet Secretary to mean business, conduct a forensic audit, and establish who the cartels are within the Ministry who manipulate systems to favour private businesses. I have nothing against private businesses. Some of the most successful universities around the world are private universities. However, they contribute to the growth of national economies by even offering scholarships. How many of these private universities have you seen giving Kenyan students scholarships? None. They are killing our public universities. I beseech you, Hon. Cabinet Secretary, besides crushing cartels in KUCCPS and UFB, also institute a forensic audit to establish the actual number of students. We should be paying for individuals who are attending classes in those private universities, not just numbers. You are paying for numbers, and not students who attend classes. In closing, I also want to beg you to help our public universities, like the University of Nairobi, to regain their lost glory. It is embarrassing that there are private universities that are driving the University of Nairobi out of town. True, these same cartels are celebrating today. They are celebrating that the cost of university education in public universities will always be higher than in private universities. Why? Because of the cost of overheads in public universities. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you and your peers in charge of higher education have a challenge to re-engineer how public universities are managed to ensure efficiency and proper governance. Those that have idle assets such as land can utilise it to generate more income and make the cost of public universities much cheaper than that of private universities. I submit, Hon. Deputy Speaker."
}