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{
    "id": 1476620,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1476620/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 171,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mandera South, UDM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Abdul Haro",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for this opportunity. I start by thanking Hon. Esther Passaris for this Motion on comprehensive reform of education bursary schemes to ensure free basic education in Kenya. From the word go, I oppose this Motion for the following reasons: I want to draw the attention of everybody to the prayers in this Motion. The prayers urge this House that the Government through the Ministry of Education in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, undertakes a comprehensive overhaul of the education bursary systems with a view of collapsing all bursary schemes and allocate the Funds to State Department for Basic Education for provision of basic education through capitation to be directly remitted to schools. The reason I am drawing the attention of Kenyans to this prayer is because this is a double-edged sword. Articles 43(1) and 53(1)(b) say that basic education is enshrined in our Constitution as a right. Every child in this country must have basic education. We do not need to reverse the progress that we have already made in terms of decentralisation of bursaries and reinvent a wheel of re-making basic education in this country. As a House that appropriates Funds, we should ensure that every child in this country has enough capitation. This is by ensuring that the Ministry of Education achieve its dream since they are already dealing with capitation. The reason why I am calling it a double-edged sword is because we have had a history with the decentralisation of bursary in the first place. It was a question of trying to deal with marginalisation which was already in place. This is where students from poor families and particularly those from rural areas were not able to access any scholarship or funding that was being administered by the Ministry of Education. Secondly, the NGAAF, the NG-CDF and the Constituency Bursary Award or County Government are not only funding basic education. We are also covering university students both in public and private who are not covered under this Motion. We have students in private universities yet they are not private Kenyans. They are Kenyans just like the other students who benefit from this bursary. Therefore, trying to reverse the decentralisation of bursary so that we can fund basic education is defeatist and a matter that we need to oppose. As an advice to the sponsor of the Motion, Hon. Esther Passaris, we should focus more on how to make free education a reality given that we already have the goodwill and support through the provisions of Articles 43(1) and 53 (1)(b) of the Constitution. As many Members have already said, the Ministry of Education has many things to do including development of infrastructure countrywide. We know the chaos that are there and we do not think we need to add them more burden because they have no capacity to deal with other functions. If we do, we would be promoting them to more inefficiency. Thank you very much for the opportunity. I oppose."
}