HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 229695,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/229695/?format=api",
"text_counter": 125,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kagwima",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 286,
"legal_name": "Francis Nyamu Kagwima",
"slug": "francis-kagwima"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity. I would like, from the outset, to support the Presidential Speech which was well presented. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, talking about free primary education, I want very briefly to say that, we need quality education. I want to echo the sentiments expressed by my colleagues that we require more teachers so that the number of teachers distributed over the classes are adequate to ensure that they supervise the classroom work adequately. The present ratio of pupils per teacher in primary schools is 70. You cannot expect a teacher to mark 70 exercise books in one day and then the following day, he gives another homework. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, from the beginning, we need to ensure that we have quality education in primary schools. I also agree that we need to give affordable secondary education. However, if we start giving free secondary education, we will be worse off. We will be doing mass production instead of ensuring quality education. Before we can talk about giving affordable secondary education, we should start by employing enough teachers in primary schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the staffing and equipping of tertiary institutions are also wanting in this country. The other day, we had an opportunity of visiting the University of Nairobi (UoN), the engineering workshop. I was shocked to see the same facilities we used as students many years ago and yet, the number of students admitted have gone up by five times. March 21, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 53 Engineering courses are supposed to be done practically. Let us go for quality as much as we would want to educate more people. Let us modernise these institutions. The equipment should match the numbers of students we are admitting rather than just producing people who go through primary, secondary and university education. By so doing, we will be wasting our resources. We would be producing people who would not be useful to our economy. Many years down the line, we may find ourselves without people to depend on in terms of quality production of work. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is good that we have free primary education. We are now planning for free secondary education, but we should look at what we want to achieve at the end. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, having said that, I want to say that the Government has done well. Looking at the past, our economy has grown by six per cent. However, I am sure that we can achieve more economic growth if we remain committed and focused. It is not one man's job. It is not the President's job to ensure the economy of this country grows. It is the responsibility of all of us; hon. Ministers, hon. Members, civil servants and even wananchi . Let us all be productive. Let us have a sense of discipline in whatever we are doing. Those in the private sector and public service should all be disciplined and focused on the issues assigned to them. I am happy that the Government is putting in place service contracts for public servants. We need to ensure that these contracts are properly supervised and analyzed. At the end of the day, before one renews his contract, we must find out whether he has performed to the expectation or needs to be replaced. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, since civil servants started signing service contracts two years ago, there is a bit of improvement in performance. We need to ensure this mechanism stays so that we can gauge our civil servants. This is the only way we can instil discipline in the public service. Otherwise, some civil servants will not perform without being supervised. They should avoid engaging themselves in private businesses to make extra money. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know sometimes people reach their peak at the retirement age of 55 years. Unless we amend our laws, we should go by what is in the books. If a civil servant is 55 years, he should retire. We need to create vacancies for the younger people. Let public servants prepare for retirement so that younger people are encouraged. We have very many unemployed graduates out there. It is a pity that some of them attain the age of 45 years before they get employed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we should encourage those people working in the public service to prepare and retire when their time comes so that they can give others a chance to serve the Government. But if we could amend the law and retain a few that must be retained, well and good, but people should be prepared for retirement other than for them to plead for extensions. I would like to talk about the Ministry of Roads and Public Works. For a long time, we were told that there was an embargo on employment and therefore, now, that Ministry does not have engineers. The Ministry does not have essential staff that can enable it cope with the increased work. We are happy that there are more resources in terms of finances, but there are no workers. There are no engineers. For example, at the Department of Bridges which is supposed to inspect and repair bridges, especially, if they are swept away, the headquarters has only two engineers who are also due for retirement. That is Eng. Muthigani and Eng. Kirago who are over 55 years. When you go to the provinces, there is only one engineer in charge of bridges for a province which has 13 districts. We are now constructing roads and there are floods coming and we expect one person to go round and ensure that bridges are designed, new ones constructed, old ones replaced and those that are swept away by floods are also repaired in good time. We are asking for impossible things from those few people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to plead with the Government to put changes in 54 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 21, 2007 place quickly. They should employ engineers because they are there in the private sector and they could come and do those jobs. Unless we do that, we are just pumping money in that sector and in a short time, we shall be unable to cope with what is expected, especially, on the maintenance and inspection work. We also need to look at other Ministries and sectors that are under-staffed due to the embargo that has been there for the last 15 years. We should do so, so that we can equip them in terms of human resources and be able to deliver services. Otherwise, I am very happy that the Government has collected revenue reasonably to ensure that we continue providing services. The human element is a major resource for any development and so, we need to look at that factor very quickly so that whatever we are putting in place can be maintained. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am happy that the Minister for Water and Irrigation is here and he has talked very well. I am happy that he is also working very hard, especially in the Arid and Semi-Arid Areas, including Tharaka District that has not had water for a long time. I hope in the next Budget he will remember that we require a few irrigation projects, so that instead of relying on relief, we produce enough food for ourselves, and if possible, produce enough for export. Therefore, irrigation is of essence to this country. Actually, a half of the money that is being spend on relief, could feed this country in the next few years. The money used in the transportation of food from Nairobi or Mombasa to those North Eastern districts is enough to pump water from Lake Victoria to those areas. So, the way forward is to ensure that we are productive. Even rain water should be harvested. You only need to do a simple dam and you have water after the rains. You do not have to go far into the rivers. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}