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"id": 185150,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Ethuro",
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"legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to commend the Government for spending a lot of resources to promote education, particularly as a commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDG No.2 is Universal Free Primary Education. To that extent, this Government needs to be commended for a job well done. However, the largest room is that for improvement. 2598 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 8, 2008 In my view, the Minister and the Ministry messed on a very fundamental issue when the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) could not add up figures, and even up to now, not a single head has rolled. This Ministry is only promoting and encouraging a culture of impunity and irresponsibility, especially, the people who are managing the academic affairs of this country who could not add up figures. That should be enough reason for a few heads to roll, and roll fast. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, recruitment of teachers, particularly in the ASAL districts, is completely opaque to the extent that when we get a chance to recruit a few teachers, somehow, we take all of them. There is also another formula that is being used, which must be made very clear to Kenyans. Just because I graduated 20 years ago, I am awarded more marks than a fresh graduate from a teacher's training college. It was not my fault that I did not go to school. It was not my fault that in the 1970s, the Government built all the schools to the so-called \"high potential areas\". This discrimination must come to an end. This issue has not been that big because the officers on the ground have been a bit understanding and sympathetic to the kind of situation that obtains in some of our constituencies. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy to speak when the Minister for Public Service is listening. We need to look into some of this criteria, which requires that even for people to be employed as chiefs and drivers, they need to have university degrees or diplomas or an \"O\" Level certificate. Turkana Central District has 50,000 children who should be in school but are not in school. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that children who are supposed to be in school go to school? My modest suggestion is that the School Feeding Programme (SFP), because those are arid areas which are prone to drought, must ensure that there is sufficient supply of food, which is provided in a timely fashion before the beginning of a new term. We have had cases where schools open before food is supplied to schools. That has really discouraged children from going to school. We have 15 children of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in a Lodwar camp. The Minister needs to give a special allocation for such persons. He has included in his report that he is going to enhance these kind of areas, and that trickles down to where we come from. The Kshs800 million bursary allocation has always been extremely helpful. I hope that the Minister is going to increase that amount to cater for more districts and more children joining secondary schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in another area, the Ministry is living a lie. The Ministry issues guidelines on the annual fees to be paid in public schools per student per annum, but each of us here, including the Ministry officials who send their children to those schools, know that the fees levied by national schools is three times the amount indicated by the Ministry in its guidelines. They should remove these lies and tell us that the fees chargeable in national schools is Kshs100,000 per annum, which we know is not for children of ordinary Kenyans, but for sons and daughters of privileged people. While the Government gives Kshs10,000 per child for free day secondary school, schools are increasing the fees chargeable. With such Government support and subsidy, I would have expected secondary school fees to come down. It is extremely important for the Minister to ensure that his officers actually look into what is happening in schools, so that the Government's well-intentioned policy of subsidising secondary education is not in vain. We come to this House and make all sorts of statements about free secondary education as school administrations increase school fees instead of reducing it by, at least, the margin of contribution by the Ministry. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Turkana District does not have a single District Education Officer (DEO); or rather, the Turkana community does not have a single district education officer. They do not even have a mere staffing officer. When the Minister looks at me, does he not think that he can get more qualified people to help him manage the affairs of the Ministry? Even with the creation of the new districts, thus, increasing the total number of districts to 150, how can we fail to get one Samburu DEO, one Turkana DEO on the basis of affirmative October 8, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2599 action? Of course, we are qualified. We are not pleading for mercy. We have people with postgraduate degrees and undergraduate degrees, who can easily give services to the Minister. I can trust him with pastoralists with their elegance and egalitarianism, who can perform so well on the job that he cannot believe. It would, as per excellence. I hope the Minister will bring to the Floor of this House a Nomad Policy. I want to commend the Ministry because although the Policy is in draft form, I urge the Minister to accelerate it. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}