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"id": 213390,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/213390/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Ethuro",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Planning and National Development",
"speaker": {
"id": 158,
"legal_name": "Ekwee David Ethuro",
"slug": "ekwee-ethuro"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for recognising the hon. Member for Turkana Central. At the risk of forming a mutual admiration society and celebrating the success of the hon. Minister for Education, the one Prof. Saitoti--- If all our Cabinet Ministers took their jobs very seriously, then this country would realise its stated objective, of being a first class world. The Vision 2030 is not just a myth. It is a realistic commitment, not just by this administration, which is just a caretaker for now but a commitment by the Kenyan people to seek and desire a prosperous nation. I serve in the Ministry of Planning and National Development as an Assistant Minister and we invited the hon. Members to our meeting at the Grand Regency Hotel so that they could actually interrogate what had been proposed and make suggestions. They did not show up. Whom do they blame? That includes the man I admire, my predecessor in the Ministry, Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me go back to education. I am extremely happy to get this opportunity to contribute to this Motion because when we talk of free and compulsory education, it is a reality that we have experienced in this nation. We have seen enrolment increasing. We have seen pupils in schools like Turkana, where people would hardly have gone to school because they were asked to go and bring chalks, exercise books and so on. Nobody is asking for those things now because the Government is allocating money per child, irrespective of where you come from. Is that not free primary education? Let us talk of visions that have realised not those that are proposed when you are unveiling your personal vision. We should not use the Floor of the House to talk of visions that do not exist in proper documentation. Those are just wishes. Even ODM(K) has not given us a presidential candidate for us to know that this is a very serious alternative. We are talking about free and compulsory education. What negates compulsory education is not the Government. It is the attitude of some of our communities who do not want to take their kids and, particularly, the girl-child to school. We have a specific Act of Parliament here that compels every parent, and every parent is liable and can go to prison if they do not take their children to school. Those are statutes of the land. It is not a matter of personal preference or choice. It is the law. Since these are our parents and voters, we cannot really jail all of them. We have to 2628 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 18, 2007 develop a national consensus. We have to continue creating awareness and preach the importance of education so that each and every Kenya child can access the free and compulsory education that this Government has given. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, having commended the efforts of the Government, of course there is room for improvement, we still need to improve the administration of education at the district level. We need to make sure that the District Education Boards are functioning regularly and properly. We have demonstrated the functioning of the DEBs through the employment of teachers. We gave it a specific mandate and it works. But sometimes, the Ministry of Education brings us officers that are not competent enough. I have had occasion where the minutes of the DEB disappear. I have had occasion where as a DEB we decide that this particular institution does not seem to cover the institutional requirement of an institution of higher learning and the office of the DEO takes ages to take action; after children have gone through high school for four years, after they have been duped into learning for two years, believing that they are going to get some certificates which are bogus. It is completely unfair for Ministry officials to sit there and wait for children to go through four years of education and have not closed down an institution that has not met the requirements by the Ministry. That is an area which requires adequate improvement. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I come from an area where there is a problem of refugees. Refugees have gone into our schools because our school system is good and we encourage them. But when it comes to the few slots that you allocate at the national schools, you find that the refugee children have taken the share of Turkana children. We are in the same Government and we are providing advice for free. As I said, we need to improve and I know that these people are listening and will make serious improvements. My recommendations to the Ministry--- I know that they are tied with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but let us deal with our reality. The environmentalists have told us to think globally but act locally. We have made provisions for centres of examinations within the refugee camps. Let the refugee children write their exams in their centres so that they do not compete for slots, so that a Turkana child can get the rightful place to go to Alliance, Mang'u or any other national school. The very purpose of education is to forge unity. How else do you forge unity if you do not access children to national schools, unless you are forging unity with Southern Sudan? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am also going to make another plea to the Ministry of Education. The national schools will ask for Kshs26 million or the Ministry will give fees guidelines of Kshs26,000 per annum per child but the reality is different. It is high time that the good Minister for Education brought this to light and exposed it. That national schools are charging Kshs70,000 per annum so that parents and the school bursary committees know and they allocate money properly. But when you advise like that and the practice is different--- We all know the truth because Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and hon. Members' kids go to those schools. I have one in a national school. I wrote a cheque for one term and I thought I will be writing it once and for all, only to realise the following term that I had to write a cheque of a similar amount. Surely, we cannot be living a white lie that we all know. Let us agree, that is they need Kshs100,000 let it be known that Alliance High School requires that much. What is the big deal? One important thing in my place is called the School Feeding Programme supported by World Food Programme (WFP). This is a very important programme. Sometimes, they threaten that they will withdraw it. The only way to ensure that these children, particularly, the pastoralists' children, can retain and remain in school and improve the rates from primary to secondary, is to make sure that there is adequate food in the boarding schools. The Minister has done it and will continue to do it. We are just emphasizing, so that we make sure that the pastoralist child can get July 18, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2629 an equal opportunity just like the children of my good friend from Taita. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me talk about bursaries. You will find that Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) areas get limited allocation because of population. I have no quarrel with population. Put the formulation but you need to add another variable in that formula known as the ASAL factor. However, 1 per cent or even 10 per cent will be good for us. Why few of us go to school is because we cannot afford it. Then you use the results of our poverty that reduces our chances of being in school against us when allocating bursary. You are condemning us to poverty for ever and the Minister comes here and reads to us that education is one of those pro-poor policies that the Government wants to make sure that Kenyans are in a position to prosper economically. Those are just some specific recommendations for the ASAL areas. I believe that these areas are the potential growth of this nation. Do not concentrate things where Dr. Murungaru comes from. With those remarks, I support."
}