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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me a chance to also contribute to the debate on the Presidential Address. I did not have the opportunity of being here on Tuesday, when the Address was being delivered by the President but, apparently, my constituents, who heard what the Speaker and the President said on that day, were very impressed. Indeed, I have read the Address. I feel it contains a lot of what is good for Kenyans. I just need to comment on a few issues contained in the Presidential Address, particularly with regard to education. I believe that during the last Session, the issue of deficiency of teachers in primary schools particularly was discussed at length. Very many Questions were put to the Ministry of Education, when my friend, Dr. Wekesa, was the Acting Minister. At one stage, he agreed that in the event that a teacher dies at any one given time, the Ministry will not wait, but will proceed and replace that teacher. That was just talk. It is not happening. Now, primary schools are badly under-staffed. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is high time that when an undertaking is made to this House, the Government followed it up and made sure that it implements it. What Dr. Wekesa promised this House was just a public relations exercise. It is not happening. The few teachers whom the Ministry employs do not fill the gaps left by those who have died. So, effectively, the teacher-pupil ratio deteriorates every year. If we are, indeed, committed to providing quality education to our children, as we have said here time and again, we must improve the levels of teachers in our schools. I believe that the Government will not take its sweet time to recruit the teachers it announced it would employ. I hope that the Government will go ahead and employ the teachers to fill the gaps that have been left by teachers who have died. On secondary school education, I am very happy about what is contained in the President's Address. Secondary school education is becoming out of reach for very many children from poor families. It is high time we started thinking about how we can support poor parents to educate their children up to the secondary school level. The Government has been challenged by the Opposition. The Opposition have already told the public that if they take over the Government, they will offer free secondary education. The Government needs to borrow a leaf from that statement and come up with a strategy on how to deal with the matter. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support the idea of increasing the number of day secondary schools, because they are affordable. So, the Government must come forward and assist in making sure that we build schools, provide them with teachers and make secondary education free. In this regard, we shall not have a problem with the Government, unlike in the case where we passed your Motion concerning release of secondary school education certificates to their owners, but it was not implemented. We still have very many secondary school leavers who cannot access their certificates. These are very bright young men who cannot be engaged in any activities because they cannot access their certificates due to their inability to clear their fees arrears. His Excellency the President talked about affirmative action. Implementation of the affirmative action policy is what every Kenyan is looking forward to. Our women are keen to see the implementation of this policy. It is, however, ironical that one can talk about applying affirmative action in employment in the public sector and then, at the same time, remove a woman from a prominent position at the Central Bank of Kenya, and put a man in her place for no apparent reason. No one in the Government has explained to the public why that happened. The public has not been told whether that woman was ineffective or incompetent. The Government just went ahead and replaced her with a man, yet it is talking about affirmative action. It is preaching water and drinking wine! 90 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 22, 2007 Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am sorry to say that the management of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) money is slowly drifting towards becoming a preserve of civil servants, and that is very unfortunate. This has happened in Kakamega District, where the District Development Officer (DDO) now seems to be in full control. She wants to dictate how every penny will be spent and she has disregarded all the Constituency Development Committee's (CDC's) instructions. This is becoming intolerable. I have just talked to the Chief Executive and I have told him that, that should not happen. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we are going to get the Constituencies Development Fund into the hands of civil servants, we will be in trouble. They will misappropriate the funds as they have done in the past. That is why we are crying for the CDF funds. These funds will not go to every part of this country. If we leave the funds to civil servants, we will not be doing the right thing. I am wondering whether this is just a barrier, so that they will have access to the funds when the House is dissolved. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are interested in making sure that the percentage is increased. I do not know why the Front Bench, particularly, the Ministry of Finance, is trying to block this, yet these funds are going directly to the citizens of this country. I have never understood why the Treasury is opposed to the idea of increasing the CDF. We need to increase the funds, so that the money that we get can be applied properly for the benefit and the development of our country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to commend the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. They have done a splendid job. At least in areas where it is possible to extend electricity, something is happening. There is equity in that particular Ministry and it needs to be commended. I wish all the other Ministries could borrow a leaf from the Ministry of Energy."
}