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"id": 223998,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/223998/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Prof. Saitoti",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 205,
"legal_name": "George Muthengi Kinuthia Saitoti",
"slug": "george-saitoti"
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"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, before I read the Statement, let me first of all, apologise for the fact that I should have made this Statement yesterday, but for reasons and circumstances beyond my control, I was not able to do so. In the recent past, there have been reports on the issue of the Ministry's effort to acquire some land from Lenana School for the building of a district secondary school in the area. Some of the reports appearing in the Press have tended to apportion blame on those who have been pursuing this matter. It is more than fortunate, given the dire need for expanded access to secondary education in Nairobi. For purposes of clearance, I beg to inform this august House as follows:- (i) Nairobi continues to be the least provided for in terms of access to secondary education, in that, it has very few secondary schools to meet the high demand for secondary school places. (ii) Nairobi has no public land for the establishment of new schools. For this reason, in 2005, we appealed to the Nairobi City Council to consider the establishment of new secondary schools on the land belonging to primary schools. As a result of that request, four new secondary schools have been established on primary school land as follows:- (i) Nduruno Secondary School in Starehe. (ii) Dagoretti Mixed Secondary School in Dagoretti. (iii) Karen \"C\" Secondary School in Langata. (iv) Dr. Mwenje Secondary School in Embakasi. However, other three secondary schools are already in the process of development. These are:- (i) Makongeni Secondary School in Makadara. (ii) Olympic Secondary School in Langata. (iii) Baba Dogo Secondary School in Kasarani. Other three secondary schools have been proposed and will soon be registered. These will be as follows:- (i) Pumwani in Starehe Constituency. (ii) Highridge in Westlands Constituency. (iii) Lavington in Westlands Constituency. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, all these schools are being developed on the land owned by primary schools whose land size is between five and 42 acres. Despite this serious problem of land shortage, the primary school communities in Nairobi have continually supported the Government's efforts of absorbing more secondary school students by donating their scarce land for putting up more secondary schools. This positive gesture has greatly contributed to the Government's policy of expanding secondary education. In pursuit of the above policy, the school community in Dagoretti area made a passionate appeal to the Ministry, to be assisted in looking for land for the establishment of a day secondary school for their children. We considered the appeal as deserving, given the fact that there is no day schools in the neighbourhood and more students are leaving primary school in the area and are in need of a secondary school. As a Ministry, we have looked for land in the area without any success. We, therefore, requested the Board of Governors of Lenana Secondary School for a portion of its 240 acres of land, to enable us to develop a new public secondary school facility to serve the Kenyan children. April 26, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 985 While awaiting the Board's response, we saw the matter appear in the Press. This was most unfortunate, given that dire need of us to increase access to secondary school education from the current 60 per cent of the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) candidates to 70 per cent by 2008. However, I would like to assure this august House that this matter is currently being discussed and I hope that an amicable solution will soon be found. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, any public school built in Nairobi serves the children of our capital city and Kenya in general. If a primary school with only five acres of land can afford to accommodate a secondary school, there is no reason why Lenana School or any other public school should not support the Government policy, which was approved in this House when the Government approved a Sessional Paper in 2005. Finally, I also wish to assure Kenyans that we are determined to reach 70 per cent of transition rate from primary to secondary school level. In the pursuit of this noble goal, we hope that we will get as much support as possible."
}