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"speaker_name": "Mr. Khamasi",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me a chance to contribute to this Bill. I want to join the Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs in saying that the establishment of a full-fledged university in Western Province is long overdue. It is very good that we have brought this Bill. This Bill has been waited for very anxiously. I believe, looking at the Bill, it is standard. This Bill has no complications. I think we can pass it today. If there are any amendments, they can come later. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, looking at the name of the university, the Minister say that there are now six public universities in this country. These universities are named after the regions they are located, for example, the University of Nairobi (UoN) is in Nairobi; Egerton University, is named after Lord Egerton and Maseno University is in Maseno. I do not see why we cannot name this university, the Kakamega University of Science and Technology. If we call it the Western University of Science and Technology, one would imagine it is located somewhere, probably out of this country. There is no harm in changing the name. I believe we should name this university by the town in which it is located. Kenyans are really yearning for education. If you look at the data provided, you will realise that 90 per cent of Kenyans who qualify to go to university, actually do not go to universities here. They prefer going to universities outside this country and that is how we are losing huge amounts of money in foreign exchange to educate our children. I believe that 10 per cent is still a very small number. There is, therefore, need for us to move very far and make sure that we pass this Bill quickly and establish the Western University of Science and Technology (WUST). Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was looking at Clause 5 of the Bill. It states the following: \"The President may, on advice of the Council, by Order in the Gazette, (a) establish any college as a constituent college of the university, or---\" This is a very important clause and once this Bill has been enacted, we should focus on upgrading other institutions in Western Province. There are very old institutions of repute in the province which have been neglected for very many years. I am thinking of institutions like Sigalagala Technical College, Sang'alo Institute of Science and Technology, Kaimosi Teachers College, Alupe Leprosy Institute and many others. All these institutions can be upgraded into constituent colleges because they can absorb a lot of students. If you look at what is going on at WUST, you will see that there is a clear lack of critical facilities. A few weeks ago, I was talking to the principal who told me that they cannot admit everybody because of lack of very critical facilities such as halls of residence, lecture halls, playgrounds and so on. It is high time the Government allocated enough funds for the development of this institution if, indeed, it is serious. When it comes to matters to do with land, there is no shortage of land in WUST. There is plenty of it. In fact, just adjacent to the university, there is what used to be the Agriculture Show of Kenya (ASK) grounds which was grabbed. This appears in the list of those properties that were stolen---"
}