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{
    "id": 202175,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/202175/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 110,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Capt. Nakitare",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 348,
        "legal_name": "Davis Wafula Nakitare",
        "slug": "davis-nakitare"
    },
    "content": "or devolvement of Government services. I do not see how well the Government can increase districts when at the same time money is being channelled to constituencies. I think it is better for us to increase the number of constituencies and devolve this money to the constituency level, so that the students can benefit. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, all along, the experience has been that children who are raised in cities and urban centres are closer to the HELB headquarters. This means that they are the best suited students to be considered for the loans because they know when to apply and they are known in the board rooms. A child from a rural area, for example, Gitwamba in my constituency in Trans Nzoia, who does not know the streets of Nairobi will not benefit from this loan system because he does not know the procedure. The procedure should be devolved and taken to the constituency level. It should be a homegrown issue that should be considered by the communities. This will also help in poverty eradication. The HELB does not know the rich and the poor. It receives applications from millions of children and ends up advancing loans to children of the rich people and denying the rural poor children chances of pursuing higher education. The loans recovery has not been structured well. It is ordinarily a speech. To me, it is like a posthumous issue where somebody from the HELB comes up to say that they would want to recover money from political aspirants. Why now and not before? Most of the people who were advanced loans have retired from employment and yet, they never repaid the loans. Mere enough is good enough. Awarding these loans at the constituency level will help and will be a wake up call. It will stimulate the minds of the children who feel that even if they are admitted to pursue higher education, their parents cannot afford to pay the fees. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when you look at the children who have been awarded scholarship overseas, you will find that they are hierarchial from the executive class. I have never seen a child from a rural area like Masaba in my constituency, who has been awarded a scholarship to Oxford University in England. The names that we see in newspapers are of children from towns and cities. There is a lot of inequality in the selection of the students to be assisted. In 2006/2007, 24,833 male students were awarded loans compared to 12,799 female students. It is like male students are always given priority. We are encouraging female students to come up and be at the same level with their male counterparts. We need to have competition. We also have genius female students. Discrimination or disparity in awarding loans also discourages the girls and they go into early marriages because they cannot afford to pursue higher education. If you look at 2006/2007---"
}