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{
"id": 1563869,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563869/?format=api",
"text_counter": 277,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Thang’wa",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I said a Member of Parliament is disbursing an average of Kshs50 million per constituency. With 290 constituencies, that is about Kshs14.5 billion. Women Representatives are giving between Kshs10 million to Kshs15 million per county. That is about Kshs705 million. Governors are giving up to Kshs500 million per county. If you multiply that by 47 countries, that is about Kshs23 billion. If you count what the Ministry of Education is giving as scholarships and bursaries, if you count what the President is giving as bursary, if you count what the corporations like “the Wings to Fly,” are giving, I am telling you the money that is out there is more than Kshs50 billion. That is from the Government without calculating bursaries from the private sector. If we put all these Kshs50 billion, divide that amount by five million students who are in secondary school today, every student will get additional Kshs10,000. Today, they get Kshs22,000, so that will be Kshs32,000. I mean, it is more than the required amount for education here in Kenya. So, the answer lies here, by making education free, by putting all these bursaries, all the capitations and declaring secondary education free of charge. I have done my own research from the Members who have supported me and from the members of the public. Even as we speak today, I have just received a letter on WhatsApp. I am not going to read all of it. It is a letter from the members of Mount Elgon Development Network. They have written a very nice letter that we should look at as the Senate. One of the recommendations they have made is to separate funds for the bursary channelled to schools and allow free and compulsory education. This is from Mount Elgon. I do not even know who they are. I could read one or two names; Janet Chemtai and Linet Chepkemoi, and it is written and signed by Cannon (Rtd) Cherotwei Simotwo. So, this tells you the time is now, and the time is right for us to give this country free secondary education. When I talk about calculating the cost of education, and it was also raised here, we want to know how much it costs or how much one student or one child requires from Form One all the way to Form Four. Once we know how much, we just multiply by the number of students. The moment we multiply, the country will know the amount of money they are going to budget for education. Once they do, we will make education free. The last time the Cabinet Secretary was here, he said they have not calculated. That is why we are now telling them, calculate and report to the House, so that both the National Assembly and this House will be able to harmonize and make sure that secondary education is free. It has been said here that those who get bursary know waheshimiwa. Sen. Mandago has brought another aspect. Even waheshimiwa themselves are sometimes threatened. They are told, “if you do not give me bursary, I will never vote for you”. So, we are helping everybody in this aspect. We are helping the Member of Parliament not to be threatened and we are helping the voter to get free education. I want to give an example. There are two Mama Mboga who pay for education. One mama mboga will spend the whole day at the MP's office, the governor's office or the MCA’s office, while the other Mama Mboga who is tired of standing at the MP's office or the governor's office, goes for a kibarua or goes to just do some handy work somewhere to get some money. 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."
}