HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 236270,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/236270/?format=api",
"text_counter": 261,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Awori",
"speaker_title": "The Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 290,
"legal_name": "Moody Arthur Awori",
"slug": "moody-awori"
},
"content": " Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to second this very important Bill. First of all, it is over- due. The Minister has stated that there are only six public universities in the country, and this is going to be the seventh. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, devolution does not start and end with governance. It must also go into education and, therefore, we would like to ensure that all things devolve all the way. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, WUST, which is now going to be a full-fledged university is situated in a very heavily populated area of western Kenya. It has taken a long time. All of us from that area have wanted this university to be started. within Western Kenya, there are very many tertiary institutions that are offering some learning that could eventually be constituent colleges of this university. We would like this university to start immediately. I am going to be very brief so as to allow others to contribute. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Speaker, Sir, within Western Province, we would like to see that immediately this becomes a reality, we would like to see that there are constituent colleges in almost every district. For instance, in Teso District, we have Alupe Leprosy Centre which is very renowned in various fields. I think it can do very well as a constituent college where medicine is taken. The center of education in Western Province is Butere where education really started, and what a better place to have the education faculty! We have Sang'alo Institute of Science and Technology, Bukura Institute of Agriculture and various other places which can help to strengthen the university. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to advise my colleagues in Western Province 3434 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 7, 2006 and other parts of this country, to avoid the construction of huge grandeur buildings. We spend a lot of money putting up beautiful buildings which do not add any value to education. I am sure many hon. Members have travelled to London several times. During their tours, they have seen a number of universities there. One cannot believe when you look at them, that they are universities. What is required is just a shelter; a place where students can access books, instruments and where professors and students can interact. Let us, therefore, try and save money instead of putting up very huge buildings, we should come up with simple buildings and ensure that students are assisted. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need this university and several other universities to be initiated and built because of the out-flow of our students to other countries. Although nobody has worked out the exact amount of money we spend educating our children in foreign countries. It is said that we are spending about Kshs50 billion. I am sure hon. Members can imagine how many universities we can set up in this country with that kind of money. We want to keep our students here because we know that quite a number of them who go to get education overseas tend to stay there. This is really the brain-drain that we keep on talking about. Let us use our education as an enterprise where other countries can come and spend their hard currency thereby increasing our economy. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want to encourage universities to be self-reliant. We know that many innovations are carried out in many countries through universities. There is no reason why our universities cannot be the same. I want to congratulate the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) because they have attempted to do so. We want to try and encourage our universities to do the same by being self-reliant. All over the world, research has been carried out mainly at the universities. We would like to do the same here. We have seen many people come from outside and, for example, take our plants and trees to their universities, carry out research, produce medicine and bring it back to this country at a very high price. Let us use our universities to do the same. By so doing, they will earn money and make them self-reliant. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know about energy, that oil is running out in the world. Let us use our universities to do research in alternative energy, so that we are prepared. We are an agricultural country. Currently, most of the machinery that we use in this country is imported. Some of it is not suited to this country. Let us use our universities to do research, so that we end up with suitable equipment in this country thereby earning the universities money and making them self-reliant. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to congratulate some regions in this country for setting up private universities. These are the Rift Valley, Eastern and Central provinces. We have no private university in Western Province. While we are setting up a public university, let us encourage our people to also set up private universities. We can never have enough institutions of higher learning. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in some of the private universities that we need, we want to train our young people in entrepreneurship. Earlier on, there was a Question on the Floor of the House asking how we will disburse the Youth Enterprise Fund. Of course, the Question had to be deferred. We have been given another month to see how we can deal with the Kshs1 billion allocated to the Fund. Although we have set aside that kind of money, we do not have many of our young people who know how to utilise it. That is an area where the institution of higher learning can assist. We still require Masters in Business Administration (MBAs), but we need to deal on a lower scale where the day to day life is carried out. I remember what is coming to be the Western University of Science and Technology (WUST), when it was the Western College (WECO), it did extremely well. It produced water November 7, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3435 pumps, which really helped the people in the rural areas. We want to improve on what they produced at that time. We cannot wait. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to stop there. I support this Bill. I want to allow my colleagues to contribute to this Bill, so that we can finish with it this evening. With those few remarks, I beg to second."
}