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{
    "id": 1446721,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1446721/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 105,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Samburu West, KANU",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Naisula Lesuuda",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "you are a graduate, you should be able to do internship. Maybe, some graduates have been applying for internship over the last five or ten years but they have not been able to get placements because they do not have godfathers. Therefore, we are not supposed to discriminate against anybody by denying such persons a chance to benefit from internship. As for the time frame, we will consider it during the next stage of amendments. We will determine whether we should do away with it or we prolong the period. I want to thank Hon. Gichangi, Hon. Nyenze of Kitui West, Hon. Mishi Mboko, Hon. Wanyonyi and Hon. Oluoch for their contributions. Hon. Wanyonyi, what you have said about including it when the students are in school is captured under the provision on who can be an intern. You can do it at the end of your schooling or you could do it as you continue with your education as part of your course. Some of them do internship in-between before they graduate as one of the requirements. Therefore, that is captured. I want to also comment on the issue of medical cover. I agree that we might have to provide for a proper medical cover, and not just a personal accident insurance cover. That is something which the Government can look into even as we move to the Social Hospital Insurance Fund (SHIF). They can come up with a package that takes care of our interns generally in terms of medical cover, and not just personal accident insurance. I agree that this is something we can look into. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I just want to allay some fears that some Members have. The Deputy Leader of the Majority Party, Hon. Baya, for example, feels that this Bill provides for misuse of interns as a source of cheap labour. He argued that because interns will be given monthly stipends, insurance cover, maternity leave and paternity leave, we are likely to misuse them because we will feel that we have taken care of them so that they can work for us cheaply. I want to assure this House that this is not the intent of this Bill. This Bill seeks to dignify the interns because they will be working anyway. Even if you say that we do not want to make them give us cheap labour, the fact of the matter remains that they will be working. This Bill seeks to dignify them as they offer services during their internship period. I want to use this opportunity to raise the issue of the Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers who have been suspended from their duties across the country because they exercised their right to demonstrate as they sought to be employed on permanent and pensionable basis. There are about 700 JSS teachers across the country, whose contracts were terminated. I want to use the Floor of this House to talk to the TSC to, kindly, treat our teachers as human beings. They were on the streets because they felt bad because they had not been employed. It is unfortunate that their contracts have been terminated as we provide some money in the Supplementary Budget so that they can be employed. It is unfortunate that those teaches have been offering their services and when they were about to be employed, the TSC terminated their contracts. I know they have been asked to appeal. They have written letters to the TSC and are waiting to be invited for interviews to present their case. I want to call upon the TSC this morning to hasten that process. Let the TSC reinstate the JSS teachers whose contracts have been terminated. We want them employed together with the 46,000 teachers who are going to be employed when we pass the Supplementary Budget in this House. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I would like to thank Members for the support they have given to this Bill. I hope we will enrich it through appropriate amendments during the Committee of the whole House. I am free to consultations. I started working on this Bill in the last Parliament but it has come to the House at the most appropriate time when our young people are talking to us as 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."
}