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{
    "id": 22114,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/22114/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 411,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Higher Education, Science and Technology",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 190,
        "legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
        "slug": "kilemi-mwiria"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am seconding. I am as proud as many other Kenyans have been in the last one week about the great success of our heroines and heroes. Like many other Kenyans, I was asking that if we can be so successful, compete with the best in the world; the biggest powers and go side by side with Russia and the United States and do much better than most of the industrialized countries, why is it that we can only be among the top in sports, but not when it comes to economic development, governance and other values? It is quite clear that we have the raw material that can compete at that level, at the national level, it is also important for us to translate that into other gains, so that we can have something else to show the world and not just our victories in track and field events. Presently, we have other negative aspects of our society having much more focus than that. Secondly, already, the Mover has said that we should make them heroes. This is important. It is very unfortunate that many of our successful athletes have died poor. There are people like Henry Rono who broke four world records in two weeks, but died a poor man. Wangila was the first one to win a gold medal for Kenya at the Olympics in boxing, but he died a poor man. There are many more cases like that. Who gives this country more honour than such people? Who does us proud more than such people? Who are the people that we remember? Who are the best examples in this country? Therefore, we should just go beyond talking about it, making them heroes and heroines and giving them Kshs1 million or Kshs5 million. What should prevent us, after having seven gold medals from buying them houses for Kshs50 million? That is only Kshs350 million. They will rest and be happy forever. They will have insurance and security. These are things that we accord many more people that have not done as much for this country. It is high time that we made them as comfortable as they can, so that they can remember what they did for this country that many of us cannot do. I would also like to say that we should go beyond the Police and the Armed Forces. Our gold medal winners are those that have been recruited to the military and the police yet there is talent outside. There are those who do not make it to the police or do not wish to be police officers and military people that also have the talent. These people, after primary and secondary school, will go to technical institutions and middle level colleges and universities. We need to find a way of having opportunities in technical institutions where you can go there and excel even if it means two or three technical institutions in the country that recruit and focus on developing talents. The same should happen to middle level colleges. A lot of talent and athletes end up in primary teacher training colleges after their secondary school education. We again need to identify teacher training colleges that can just focus on developing that talent and they can cut across the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, some of the athletes you see competing like the triple jump winner from the United States of America (USA) and a few others are actually college students in the USA and other countries. However, you will not find top athletes from our universities. It is not because they are not there but it is because we do not create an environment to support our young people in our universities. If you visit many of these countries, university games are very big; even bigger than many professional sports. This is because a lot of resources are put there and the talent is developed right there. It is important also to see how we can support the students in our universities, first of all by ensuring that if you are a top athlete, you go through university without having to pay school fees and get scholarships in other countries. What is it that makes it necessary for us to ask for school fees from students who can contribute in other ways in terms of strengthening this country so that they do not have to spend their time worrying about simple living conditions? They should be supported and feel comfortable as is, indeed, the case with those that get scholarships in those countries and eventually compete for their countries. We also need to revisit our counties and have stadia and academies in every county. We should not just talk about Nyayo Stadium. There should be a big stadium in Meru and in other counties. We should also have those sport academies where we develop talent and give everybody an opportunity to compete and to know that you do not have to go to Nairobi to compete."
}