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"id": 219891,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Karaba",
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"legal_name": "Daniel Dickson Karaba",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to contribute to this wonderful Motion. We have problems. We need not pretend that we have problems in expanding education facilities in this country. We have problems caused by geography. We have areas which by nature are difficult to access. We have areas which are impossible to imagine that they are in this country not of their own fault but just because of fate. We, therefore, have students in the same areas who are supposed to compete with other students from elsewhere in the country which are well endowed like Central Province, Western Province, Nyanza Province and Nairobi. Some of these students who come from marginalised regions are by nature marginalised in the provision of infrastructure. When they are expected to compete with students who come from 1558 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 23, 2007 well-endowed regions, they are disadvantaged. It is important that this Motion addresses the needs of students staying in those areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in such areas you will find that the infrastructure which facilitates education is missing. We have poor roads and lack of piped water such that if they were to carry out experiments in schools, their results will be faulty because the water is not clean. Pupils are supposed to do experiments using power supply, particularly if they are doing physics and there is no power. They will not get the required results if they do not have controlled power supply. So, these are some of the issues that we should address ourselves to here. Since we have the kids and students staying in those areas, the Government should, therefore, be urged to study this Motion and see to it that it is necessary that those kids and students are provided with the necessary facilities as it is stated in this Motion; that, the Government provide extra money in form of bursaries and ensure that we have good schools in those areas. I hope that, with the other Motions that we have passed here, the coming up of centres of excellence should not be seen like something that is just a passing cloud. It should be a reality, particularly so in those areas. We also need to stimulate the students staying there so that they can access university education because this is their right. If it is not possible, therefore, we are going to have a situation in our society where those who have will continue having and those who do not have will not even have access to what is necessary to have, and the vicious cycle of poverty will be seen to be entrenched in our society. This is what we are addressing here. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are addressing areas, some of which can have universities. One time, the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology visited Kibwezi rangeland, where the University of Nairobi is coming up with a university campus. But the problem we noted in that area, much as, of course, the land is almost 60,000 acres which is for the university--- The distance between the University of Nairobi and Kibwezi is great, such that if the lecturers have to go and teach students in Kibwezi, come to report again in Nairobi, the transport difference or even the cost itself disallows the lecturers even to attend lectures in Kibwezi. So, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Motion is, therefore, calling upon the Government to come up with relevant courses, institutions and universities to be established where the ecosystem allows such institutions to be located. For example, I have in mind Kibwezi. Anybody doing a degree relating to rangeland management, livestock or animals, the best location would be Kibwezi, where they will all go and see the flora and fauna of the region. They will be able to study the environment relevant to the course. What happens after that? We have students who will be studying rangeland management, for example, in Kabete, and who would not even be exposed to the same rangeland that they are supposed to live in and, after that, we have half-baked graduates. We are, therefore, asking the Government to address this Motion with all the seriousness that it deserves to enable us have relevant students studying in those institutions so that when they come out, they will be absorbed in what is there for them; that is, the degrees related to the labour market. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other thing we noted is that these marginal areas have a lot of problems and hardships. We have problems of tribal clashes, drought, nomadism, and, maybe, shortage of facilities. These problems, compounded, will lead to the students in those areas not having access to quality education, and the same student is supposed to do the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination and get, maybe, grade \"A\" so that he or she can do medicine in the University of Nairobi. If this person has not studied biology or, maybe, chemistry or even physics at the \"O\" level, that is, in forms one and two, how do you expect him or her to compete with somebody who has been in a school like Alliance Boys High School or Starehe Boys Centre, for that matter and who has been subjected to the study of the same courses not in those areas May 23, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1559 because even the infrastructure is missing? That is why we are calling upon the Government, therefore, to make sure that even those students who stay in those marginalized regions are facilitated, equal to those students who are in well endowed areas because that is not a fault of their own making; it is just nature. That is what the Motion is calling for. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is a course called computer teaching. Computers in Nairobi and other urbanised regions are an in-thing; Standard one or two pupils are exposed to them. But you will find that Form Three or Form Four students in North Eastern Province and some parts of Eastern Province have never seen a computer. So, you cannot expect the students to do computer related courses in Nairobi or Egerton universities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this, therefore, calls for the Government to take charge and make sure that students all over the country are treated the same. They are innocent and they do not know why they are in those areas. The Government, therefore, should step in and make sure that quality education is provided in those areas, so that these students can take any course in our universities and then they can go to their provinces and plough back their knowledge. Students from these areas do not access university education in Kenya and even in other parts of the world. Kenya is losing many students to other countries. It is losing a lot of money as students study in Uganda, America, Australia and other parts of the world. Why should we lose that income while we can spend that money to put up one or two universities in those areas? We should put up universities in North Eastern, Coast and Eastern provinces using the same resources, so that our students, who otherwise, would not have known what a desert is, can go and see a desert in real life. We should expose our students to different environments. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, most of the students who join our universities are the former pupils of private academies. They are from schools like Alliance Girls and Cardinal Otunga. When shall we have students from the ASAL areas studying in our public universities? As I support this Motion, I would like to urge the Government to take it seriously. In this country, we have seen that a blind eye has been turned against the people who live in harsh areas. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}