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"content": "He should concentrate on fighting devil worship in the PCEA Church and leave us alone. That is all I would like to say because it is such kind of people who have continued to damage the reputation of hon. Members. Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me also thank you for appointing me to a sub-committee to review the Standing Orders, as you mentioned. I want to assure hon. Members of Parliament that we are doing everything possible to ensure that we consult as widely as possible in the task you have given us. I want to urge hon. Members of Parliament to be patient because after the sub-committee completes its work, we will hand over the work to the Speaker's Committee. Mr. Speaker, you have assured me that you will provide an opportunity for hon. Members to go through the document in an informal manner, in a Kamukunji, and provide suggestions that will eventually formulate the final document to be brought to this House. I am saying this so that hon. Members will not be apprehensive, as is already the case, since some are already debating on the raw document that we are working on. Having said that, let me make a few comments on the President's Speech. The President elaborated on education. I want to say that, yes, the Government has made a lot of progress in providing free primary eduction and to a certain extent, free secondary education. I want to join my colleagues in saying that, yes, the Free Primary Education Programme (FPE) is there - I am very sorry that the Minister has left - However, the quality of education leaves much to be desired. There are 100 kids in a classroom being taught by one teacher. Imagine a situation where a school with eight classes has five teachers. We know that the situation is not the same in all areas of the country. There are some areas, which for some reason, continue to suffer shortage of teachers, and yet the Government is doing nothing about it. I know of one such secondary school. The President was right in saying that we should encourage day secondary schools. I have already done exactly what he wants. I have day secondary schools that I have started with only one teacher from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). The rest are employed by poor parents. I would like to ask the President to go further and ensure that there is equity in the distribution of teachers in this country. The hon. Dr. Kilemi Mwiria yesterday came up with a grand idea. I wish he was the Minister for Education. He said that instead of a few schools taking many children to universities and leaving many schools not sending even one student to the universities, why not practise an affirmative action and ensure that the best student from every school joins university? That way, we would ensure that, at least, every corner of the country has students who will join the universities. There are schools which have been in existence for over 20 years, yet they have not had a single student joining the university. I think we need to give some thought to that issue. March 22, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 79 Mr. Speaker, Sir, whenever I have stood here to talk about education, I have spoken about withheld Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) certificates. Today, hon. Nyiva Mwendwa added to that. I want to urge hon. Members to join me in ensuring that this matter is resolved once and for all. I am saying that because last year, I conducted a census in my constituency. In my constituency, last year, without counting those who graduated last year, 740 children had no certificates. Their certificates are being held in schools. Is that not the case in Mosop, Sabatia and everywhere else? Why do you, hon. Members, let this matter go on as if it is my own? Why can you not come out because it is a serious case? Over one million children in this country have finished school and have no certificates. Therefore, they cannot access employment. I urge the Government, before talking about free secondary education, to clear that matter. We are not being genuine by being told about free secondary education when we have students who have been out there for 15 to 20 years without certificates. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the issue of appointing new judges is a grand idea. However, I want to agree with hon. Wetangula, that the solution to the poor delivery of justice in this country will not be to increase the number of judges to 200. I believe that we must address the issue of the capacity of the investigating authorities; those who investigate crime because I think the capacity is lacking. Our police and the prosecutors are not capable. How many very serious cases have gone to court only to end up with suspects being acquitted for lack of evidence? That is because we lack the capacity. I will support a slight increase in the number of judges but emphasise more on improving the capacity of investigators and prosecutors. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to talk about the Youth Enterprise Fund (YEF). This is a grand idea. However, there is already a problem in the management of that Fund. We were told that a sum of Kshs210 million will go to the constituencies. Already, we have seen cheques being handed over to some constituencies; I suppose politically-correct constituencies. The Minister and his colleagues were handing over cheques from that Fund to certain groups and yet we know that, in our constituencies, the money has never reached there. Why is that happening? There is also the issue of the Kshs790 million, which is supposed to be distributed nationally. That is where the problem is. We want the Kshs790 million to be distributed through districts, so that we know that there is equitable distribution. If we do not do that, some regions will take the whole Kshs790 million and others will remain only with the Kshs210 million that has been given to the constituencies. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I applaud the creation of additional districts. But the manner in which that exercise was conducted leaves a lot to be desired. One would have expected a commission to be appointed to investigate, inquire, study and determine which areas require new districts, and where the boundaries will be. The problem we have right now is that new districts have been created for those who do not need them. Those who need new districts have been denied the chance to have them. That is not fair. A more civilised way would have been followed in creating additional districts. It is not too late to do that because we have squabbles in constituencies where boundaries are being created in a manner that the population does not want. We can still have that corrected by appointing a commission. Mr. Speaker, Sir, finally, I want to applaud the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) for investigating the activities at the Pensions Department. We passed a law regarding the Pensions Department and it is not being followed. I hope that they will ensure that pensioners are paid their pension on time. Mr. Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}