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"id": 1563803,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563803/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 33,
"legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
"slug": "margaret-kamar"
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"content": "2015, when no child should be at home. The aim was to make sure that by 2015, every child can access education. In fact, there was access also, because you can be talking of free education that cannot be accessed. In our country, we know that we have different geographic situations. Some people have a school that is 20 kilometres away. So, access is supposed to be also looked at, because you cannot get free and compulsory unless it can be accessed. I would like the Senator to include access in what he is demanding in this Motion. This is because once this Motion is done, we will take it up in the Committee on Education and make demands from the Cabinet Secretary, to come and explain how we can deal with this. I like the way the Senator has gone ahead to propose to us the resolutions that we are going to give. One of the resolutions is to audit the funds that are allocated to bursaries. As the Senate Standing Committee on Education, we have been auditing the education sector by governors. We have done only nine out of the 47 governors. As we discuss this, something surprised us, that a governor can have only two vocational training centres and release Kshs700 million for bursaries. We asked this question. This thing is not even devolved, how come governors do not have any agreement between themselves and the national Government to enable them to do this activity that is not devolved? We have been demanding, as a Committee, that our sector be addressed in terms of what is in the Fourth Schedule. We told the governors that they should stick to the Schedule, they say, it is political right to give bursaries, and we asked, “Why is it politically right?” If you want to give bursaries, look for a way of getting a job where the bursaries are being given, as one of the Senators mentioned earlier. We need to know the cost because our position as a Committee to our governors is that there is nothing wrong with giving bursaries, but please, have an intergovernmental agreement, so that functions are followed by resources. We said, this is new money. If you want to give bursaries, you need new money from the national Government because this is not your function. If you tell us at the county level, it is the governor who can identify the needs more, the national Government will agree with you. We agree with you because we know those who are needy are closer to the MCAs and they are closer to the governor than anybody else. However, why do we not do a neat thing and establish a relationship? We said, CoG, you have the Summit with the President every year. What do you tell him when you go to the Summit if this is not an agenda? That is where I agree that if there is need, if they must give that, it must be consolidated, but the best thing is the answer that Sen. Thang’wa has given us. The reality on the ground is that children are at the mercy of parents who have disagreed with chiefs and MPs. We are being told that not everybody gets bursary. We got this from the same governors. We asked them, “Members of Parliament are doing this job and blaming you for following them all over.” They told us MPs are a bit discriminative or that chiefs are not identifying every needy learner. Why should we allow a child to be at the mercy of a chief or disagreements between a parent and a Member of Parliament? The positions they are giving us is that 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."
}