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{
    "id": 1569683,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1569683/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 151,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kilgoris, KANU",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Sunkuli",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I welcome all the students who have come from different parts of Kenya. It is good that they have all come together to see the National Assembly of the Republic of Kenya. From the outset, you learn the need to interact with the rest of Kenya. Welcome to the National Assembly where many of you will look into in future either as Members or voters. You will look at it as a House that will make a difference in your life. For the students from Kajiado, on behalf of the Member for Kajiado Central, I wish to say karibuni. Hon. Deputy Speaker, as I was saying, this is a very important Bill that has been brought by the Senate, and to this House by the Chairman. Growing up, my father was an extension officer. Those were the days when ‘extension’ had a meaning. When devolution came, we devolved the function of agriculture to county governments. This function is not very attractive to county governments. They do not treat it as a top priority. This notwithstanding the fact that in reality, every county has a budget line for agriculture. One thing that they have totally omitted to do is to recruit extension officers. I wonder from the point of view of the national Government, if a county government is not recruiting extension officers, and we are allowing universities and colleges to teach agriculture, are we not misleading the young people to go for courses where nobody will employ them? We have many people in our constituency with certificates, diplomas, and degrees in agriculture. They cannot be employed by the national Government because that function is devolved, yet the county governments have not shown any indication that they are going to employ them. It is important that colleges teaching agriculture reduce the ratio of students they are teaching because the number of students they are churning out who ought to be extension officers cannot be accommodated in the country. After all, the policy on recruitment in the county governments is wrong. I always decry Egerton University, our top agriculture university, on the way it is not coming up to standards nowadays. It is considered to be one of those universities that are going down the drain. This is the case and yet we say in this country that agriculture is important. If our premier university that trains agricultural officers is not doing a good job, where in the future, when we decide to recruit these people, are we going to get the real experts? Yes, Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology and other colleges of its kind are training people with certificates and diplomas. But what about the people who have a global knowledge of agriculture? Where are we going to have them trained if Egerton University cannot train them? The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}