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"speaker_name": "Prof. Oniang'o",
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"legal_name": "Ruth Khasaya Oniang'o",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to contribute to this Bill. Indeed, this is a happy day for me because we are going to see yet another university being born. Normally, when the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination results come out, I am saddened to see students who have attained grades B (Plain) and B- (Minus) being left out of university education. We only absorb 10 per cent into our public universities. I saw in the newspapers an advertisement for industrial training. I am not sure whether it was a diploma or certificate course being offered. Most of those who applied had attained grades B (Plain) and B- (Minus). For the first time, I am glad, we saw many women apply for the course. We are all aware that Grade C (Plain) is average. Everywhere in the world, Grade C (Plain) can get somebody into a university. So, we have so many Kenyans waiting to join university. Previously, in my various contributions in this House, I used to say that we need to take universities to the people. As far as I am concerned, every community must have access to a university. The pastoral community can also have mobile university for themselves. With the current technology, we can access university education through Information and Communications Technology (ICT). It is true that we can do that. I am aware that this country can afford to do that. November 7, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3437 This year, we have about 270,000 students sitting for their KCSE. Come next year, we shall be faced with same problem of being unable to admit 90 per cent of qualified students into our universities. Right now we have about 650,000 students sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations. They are already looking ahead, that is, which universities will admit them in the future. When university lecturers go on strike and when we discuss university education, we do it in a very simplistic way. The minute you go to nursery school, you are already focusing on university education. That is the ultimate and every Kenyan has a right to earn that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when the Western College (WECO) was starting, I was a member of the Board of Governors. We used to discuss how it could be turned into a university. At that time, it was just like a dream. Where WUST is now located is the prime centre of Western Province. When we talk of university education we are insisting on local people accessing it cheaply. Those who have retired and those who passed to go to university, but never got a chance to be admitted into any university should be able to leave their homes on bicycles and access university education very cheaply. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, at the same time we are talking of unifying Kenya through university education. We should have it as a national institution and have students from all over the world. Many of them will be going past Nakuru to western Kenya for the first time and through that way, we can stop talking tribalism and know that we are Kenyans and one country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, also universities always have a quota system for international students. Let me tell you what international students do, they bring diversity. We are talking of cross-fertilisation. So, we cannot shut out everybody and I always marvel when our universities shut out foreign university students. We can charge them four times what our own students are paying because we know when we go to America, Germany, Japan and many other countries in Europe, we pay through the nose. So, we can have them but say we are limiting them to a certain percentage because they add value to what our students are going to experience. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to congratulate the Minister. I am aware that he fast-tracked the establishment of this university. I remember when he was put in the acting position, that is the first thing I told him. However, I also told him that as soon as we have it as a full-fledged university, we need constituent colleges and the one I have in mind is a stone's throw away from where I was born. It is called Bukura Agricultural College. That will be the university's constituent college which will offer agriculture for Western University of Science and Technology (WUST). We should say that for every province we must have a university and every district needs to have a constituent college. That way, we can have many Kenyans accessing university education. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was in India and you will be amazed that every Indian who stood up in this conference of about 4000 people was \"Doctor Somebody\". It is not a miracle to be \"Dr. Somebody\". It is just that you feel good about yourself because you have been given an opportunity to access that knowledge and I hope this House will go down in history as having established as many universities as we can. The next one as far as I am concerned, should be a mobile university in the arid and semi- arid areas because that environment creates an opportunity for excellent research. As you know, those areas do not produce much, but it does not mean they cannot produce something. Universities are centres of excellence. They are all about research, seeking knowledge, safeguarding and questioning knowledge. Universities should withstand the test of time and politics and all of us should support the establishment of universities in all our areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we talk about accommodation. I know the Minister for Tourism and Wildlife, who is here, told me he is looking for very innovative ways of promoting tourism by having people stay in our own houses, whether they are grass thatched or not, but make 3438 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 7, 2006 sure you provide the basic amenities. We are always constrained by where our students are going to stay and I would like to see that kind of innovative thinking in education; that lets us have students come from western Kenya and go to Mount Kenya region for university education and go to the Coast but they can stay in somebody's house. That way, it is affordable for them. So, let us not talk of no bed capacity and, therefore, you cannot go to the classrooms. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister has said here in his Bill that there will be no additional funding required from the public kitty. University education is expensive. If it is going to be of quality, right now we have to have in place modern technology, we need computers since they are easily accessible. We need every professor to be computer literate and it should be a requirement. I usually tell my fellow professors that if you \"google\" and not find \"Ruth Oniang'o\" on the internet, then you are not worthy your name as a professor. It means you have not published, not done research and you are not known internationally. University professors are the epitome of knowledge and scholarship. They are the ones who actually contribute Africa's knowledge to the international body of knowledge. I would like to urge the Ministry to make sure we remunerate our professors properly but at the same time, we demand that they help in the development of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we bring in consultants; some little boys who have just attained their PhDs. These are 23 to 30 years olds to come and advise Kenya where it should be going when we have our own professors here and we complain when they want to be remunerated better. We ask what they are doing and yet we do not give them an opportunity to contribute towards the development of this country. I am aware that in Tanzania, a consultancy job cannot be given to a foreign body unless local professors, academicians and intellectuals are actually involved in bidding for that job. We need to have that here as well. Through that way, we can develop as a nation and talk of realising our 2030 vision. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have talked about linking this to international scholarships and taking the universities to the people. I want to talk about accreditation. I do not know what the Commission for Higher Education does. They only look at whether you have met the criteria or not. When I visited Nigeria as part of a team looking at the university accreditation system, they had just closed down a medical school because they have an accreditation system which ensures competitiveness in their universities. As we go on establishing more and more universities, both public and private, we have to ensure that our children access the best education possible because God did not discriminate when it came to giving grey matter. Even Africans here have the best grey matter in the world and our children should be able to access that education. It is always in my view that we should have local education when it comes to the first degree but, at the same time, we should make sure that we have scholarships for our children to go out, seek knowledge and then give them reasons to come back. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, finally because my colleagues want to contribute, the Minister talked about the founding fathers of Western College (WECO). Many of them have passed on and I hope I do not have to bring an amendment here because I know the Minister will do so. I would like the Minister, at the inauguration of this university, to have a monument with their names on and also to give them honorary degrees posthumously because then we shall be recognising the founding fathers and mothers of this university."
}