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"id": 1563787,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale",
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"legal_name": "Bonny Khalwale",
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"content": "free. Then we add on by making it also free in secondary schools. If it stabilises, the next Government after that of President William Ruto, be it after 2027 or 2032, will be able to roll out free tertiary education. Madam Temporary Speaker, we as the representatives of our parents and defenders of our counties, would like to insist that Kenyan parents are ready to feed their children and buy them uniform. However, the other appendages of education must be borne by the Government. By the way, let the people at the National Treasury know that the money that they give out is not their money. It is public money that normally ends in the consolidated fund after realisation from tax collection. Madam Temporary Speaker, it saddens me that despite the governor, MP, Member of County Assembly (MCA), Women Representative and the Office of the President having money for bursary, every Friday when I go to Malinya, the first thing I meet is little children coming to my home because they know when they come home, I share the little I have to afford them Kshs1,000, Kshs2,000 from my salary, so that they can enjoy education the way my children enjoy education. I thank God that he has given me an opportunity to sit in this job and equally thank the Government for paying me a salary that allows me to respond to these children. However, when I do so, I know I am wasting time because the population of Kakamega County is 2.5 million people. So, when I reach out to a handful of children, I am wasting time. I should use my time better by insisting on this floor that education in the Republic of Kenya must be made free. How can we allow ourselves to underperform relative to a small country like Burkina Faso? The young President in Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, is rolling out free education in his country. Traoré is supposed to be learning from Kenya and not the other way around. We owe it to our people. We are their leaders. We draw our allowances and salaries from their taxes and, therefore, we should not be deterred. Our objective is that, every Kenyan child must access education. Let the country know that the counties with the highest levels of literacy, for instance, Kiambu, Kakamega, Nakuru, Machakos, Nairobi City, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Nyeri counties, are the counties with the lowest rates of poverty. So, educating children is a proven method of fighting poverty. Madam Temporary Speaker, I celebrate this Motion because the late Gaylord Avedi once told me--- Gaylord Avedi is a former Permanent Secretary and Principal of Kakamega High School, where I went to school. He told us that education will equalize you. He used to tell us that it is the social equalizer. He used to tell me this and I can tell you for sure that it was great music because in a school of 800 children, I was the only one who was walking in school without shoes. However, he would tell me that I will be equal to my colleagues. Indeed, I have become equal to them. I do not want any child to fail to realize their potential because of being denied education. Madam Temporary Speaker, I would like to end this conversation by sending an appeal to my governor. That the advisor on youth affairs, Mr. Emmanuel Makokha, and the County Executive Committee Member (CECM) in charge of Education, Mr. Mophat Mandela, move around social functions in their area of birth in a section of Kakamega County and read out the amount of bursary rolled out to schools in those areas. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}