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"id": 183429,
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"speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology",
"speaker": {
"id": 190,
"legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute in support of this Vote. I would like to constrain my remarks on Vision 2030 which is a key element of this Ministry. I would like to, especially emphasize the need for supporting very strongly the area of human resources development with regard to both training and how we use the people that we have available in support of development in this country. Already, the Government has done a great deal in terms of beginning to support the development of human resources from the primary education level to secondary education; with the free primary education and free-limited secondary school education. This is okay. However, we have to go beyond that if we need human resources that can make a difference in development in this country. I say this because even though we have been talking about basic education, being a basic pre-requisite for development or a basic right, we have got to a point where to make a difference in basic education for Kenya, in terms of what we need to generate. We October 21, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2847 must emphasise on university or tertiary level education, so that we have the relevant resources to support the programmes that will be crafted out of Vision 2030. In particular, we have to pay a great deal of attention on science and technology. I say this because, sometimes, we tend to marginalise science and technology, yet countries that have made a difference in terms of making major strides in development have invested a great deal of their resources in the area of research, science and technology. In fact, if you go to a country like Finland, 28 per cent of their national budget is spent in the area of science and technology, especially research. Unless we do so, we will be wasting a lot of possibilities that we could utilize in the area of science and technology. But that should not just be focused on research. It should also target institutions. How much are we doing to develop more institutions that will train people in the area of technology, that is, more technical institutions and people in universities doing science degrees, engineering and so on. This will not be possible unless we are also very clear about the kind of rewards that are available to our best brains. I think for us to attract the best scientists and innovators, we must be prepared to pay them. As much as we are talking about increased salaries for different sectors in this country, to me, the most critical group of people are our top scientists. We must pay them as much as we need to pay them, so that we attract them from not being employed by multinationals in this country and other countries that can appreciate their talent much better than us. So, our people in universities and science institutions need to be paid much more than they are getting now if we are to attract them to remain here and support development in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I did say at the beginning that the area of university education is very critical. We need to expand it, but ensure that whatever training we are making available is high quality, relevant and that we reach as many Kenyans as possible to benefit from this education. But as we expand university education, we also need to invest in post-graduate training. The people who will develop our scientists and conduct research in our universities, can only be products of people who have gone through post-graduate training. So, we need to put much more money in the training of people who have Masters and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees, especially in the relevant areas. These are the people that we can count on to be innovators and conduct the research that we need in the area of science and technology. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we train people locally, we also need to identify training opportunities overseas; in countries that are much more developed in the area of training than ourselves. These include the Western world; top American and European universities. I say this because if you go back to many of those countries in Asia that have made a difference, as they invest in their human resources, they have thousands of people in specific universities in West to be able to train their people in those areas for which they do not have the facilities. So, you must be prepared to have thousands of Kenyans going out to be trained. We should ensure that they come back to work in our country. That must be a deliberate effort. But that must be only in those institutions and training programmes that are not offered locally. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, again, we cannot do much in terms of development in this country, if we leave many people who have dynamism, are young and have education, unemployed. I understand that it is a serious challenge in this country. So, we should do whatever we can to ensure that our university graduates are engaged. You cannot train that kind of human resource and leave it out there after spending so much money on education. We cannot dare do without taking advantage of that dynamism and knowledge that this country has invested in it so much. So, every effort should be made. We should encourage collaboration with the private sector to ensure that our university graduates are employment so that they can contribute to the development of this country. The same applies to technicians. We should not only expand the range of the number of technicians that come out of our institutions, but also pay them well enough 2848 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 21, 2008 so that they can be motivated to work in the technical fields. So, as we expand our universities, we must also leave major opportunities for those that only want to pursue technical education. More importantly, we should attract them into those institutions. We should reward them as well as they are rewarded in other countries in the West. That way, the technicians will be the bridge between the manual labourers and those who have high qualifications in form of university education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, young people are available to be misused by politicians to cause chaos during ethnic clashes and other times because they have nothing to do! The best way for us is to engage those young people in a lot of projects that are labour-intensive. That way, we will keep them engaged and they will contribute to the overall development of this country. But we cannot afford to leave our young people who have the energy and who comprise a large proportion of our population out of development. That will be a much better way of utilising that talent, instead of politicians taking advantage of the fact that they are jobless and desperate. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in terms of human resources, we must also do our best to attract our brains. There are many Kenyans who are working with multi-nationals in Europe, Asia and America. Many of them would like to come here, if there is the right environment and, most importantly, if we pay them well. So, we must provide them with the conditions that make them want to stay in America and Europe. So, we need to have a specific programme that targets our human resources that are out there being exploited by countries that can pay them much better, and those that can give them environments that make them feel it is unnecessary to come back. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, all that touches on the need to emphasize merit in recruitment. If you want to have the best people that will contribute to the development of this economy - the Civil Service - and to support even Vision 2030 in the Government, we must make merit the key determinant of who to recruit to key positions in the Government, parastatals and, especially, people who have to make important decisions. But if the recruitment is based on who knows a specific Minister, who comes from which clan, who knows members of Board of Directors of National Social Security Fund (NSSF), irrespective of whether or not I am qualified; irrespective of whether or not I am the best, I think we are not going to get very far in terms of ensuring that we push the agenda of Vision 2030 ahead. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in this respect, we also need to address the whole issue of inequality. We cannot afford to leave the majority of the people out of the mainstream education system and employment. In this regard, although we are putting money in the Free Primary and Secondary Education programmes, we have to find a way of ensuring that the majority of Kenyans who come from institutions that are not as well endowed as the privileged ones, also get the opportunities to benefit from university education, so that they can contribute to the development of this country. More than 50 per cent of the people of this country live below the poverty line. Approximately 40 per cent! No country can develop if it has that many people not involved in mainstream development. If alleviating their poverty by ensuring that they take advantage of education and employment opportunities will be one of the ways, then we really must do everything that we can to ensure that, that majority have an opportunity to participate in the development of this country. Finally, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Vision 2030 will call for a no-nonsense type of leadership. We must be prepared to have a leadership that knows the direction that it wants to take us, irrespective of what people think. That is where we realize that many of the countries that have made a difference - Asia, China and so on - have what you would call \"benevolent dictators\". Those are leaders who would say: \"This is the way we have to go, whether you like it or not!\" That is irrespective of what other people think. That leadership must be prepared to invest in the right direction. It must be prepared to fight tribalism. It must be prepared to fight corruption! In fact, in October 21, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2849 those countries, if you commit economic crimes, you are subjected to a firing squad. You are executed in public! We must deal very seriously with crimes against humanity. We must deal very firmly with people who steal from the public. If we do not address issues of corruption and national unity, it is going to be very difficult for us to have a stable environment that will make the development of Vision 2030 to succeed. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}