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"speaker_name": "Dr. Kosgei",
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"legal_name": "Lucas Kipkosgei Chepkitony",
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"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is a problem there for the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology. When I first said that we could no longer turn tertiary institutions into universities, I got many visitors and not only the Member who spoke. Many people are still asking why we are stopping them from having their own universities. We know, we are aware and we respond to that. I cannot tell you that we have resources today to build tertiary schools and also turn them to universities. Currently, universities are struggling but our aim is to build those tertiary institutions to a level where they can also offer degrees. At the moment, we are fighting hard and struggling to get funding to replace what we have lost. As I said, we have received modest response in terms of finance from the Treasury, basically, because we know how limited our resources are. However, we went beyond that. The hon. Member was probably not here when I presented the budget for the Ministry. We are looking at the Chinese to assist. We have a possibility to get even the equipment. The issue is not just about buildings. I am, personally, worried today that we have institutions today whose equipment for technical facilities is not up to date, is old and has been there for many years. It is obsolete. We are trying to get support. We have support from the African Development Bank (ADB). We have negotiated with three other governments for support. We are trying to get the legislators also to help us to pass the message that the country cannot develop without proper technical training or higher education. Every country must have an elite force that will drive development. So, we will talk about the Vision 2030 until we go blank on the face without doing anything if we do not expand the level of training that can push industries. This is what we are trying to do and we are very much aware of the situation. I would like to ask hon. Members to help me to continuously push for better university education and when we can, we will seek to offer more degrees. Given Kenyaâs population, we should be training more than just 170,000 students in our public universities."
}