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{
    "id": 1491694,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1491694/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 173,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ogamba",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Education",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "assure you that I will follow these up even as an advocate to ensure that this compensation comes through as soon as possible. There is no reason why it should take more than four years to sort out such issues. Four years is a long time. So, I will handle that one. In terms of the monies that were promised, the Kshs15 million was, of course, paid. Out of the Kshs20 million, we have already paid 5 million. We are following up with the Kshs15 million balance. This is because of the limitations of resources, as you may understand. Once resources are available, we will be able to sort that out. So, it is in the programme. Now, regarding the compensation policy at the Ministry for accidents, fires and any other misfortune events, during the previous financial year, we had the policy that was provided for under the Edu-Afya. That covered all these requirements and every incident and accident was compositable through that policy. Now, it is again being provided for under the Universal Health Programme that we are rolling out, the Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF). We have already sent out a circular to parents and all our teachers to ensure that the students through the parents are registered on SHIF. As a Ministry, we are ahead. The large number of those 12 million that are already registered come from our Ministry. So, the compensation is already provided for in that particular policy. The defiance of the regulations and what new strategy we are coming up with is that after this particular accident, it became clear that the penalties that are provided for in the regulations are not punitive enough. We are amending the Basic Education Act and we will be bringing it to Parliament. We want to raise those policies into provisions of the law. When you violate them, the penalty is that much more severe, including imprisonment. The policies are in place, but sometimes there is some laxity in terms of obeying them. However, we are elevating them to the level of being regulations and statutory so that people can take them very seriously. We are working on the amendment and I am sure we will remedy that. When the Hillside Endarasha event occurred, we commissioned a thorough investigation of all the boarding schools. The report was written and we started analysing it yesterday. We have not completed the analysis, but we will issue a circular to tell the people what they are supposed to do. Any school that will be found not to be conforming will be deregistered. On the question of Quinta Amondi, I am unaware of the case as we speak. I would suggest that if you forward us the details of that case, I will be happy to follow it up for conversation and proper handling of it. Now, the regularity of sports checks on how the schools are adhering to the policies is an issue also related to the limitation of resources because the safety and quality assurance officers that we have are not sufficient. So, we will be coming back to Parliament to seek more resources to employ a number that is proportional to the schools that we have to ensure that the spot-checks are done regularly. We want have enough personnel, and well capacitated in terms of tools and vehicles, to ensure that they are doing their job. There is a question of vehicles that come to it and ensuring that that spot check will be done regularly. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only.A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and Audio Services,Senate."
}