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"speaker_name": "Mr. Ligale",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill. First of all, I want to congratulate the Minister for fast- tracking this Bill. It is long overdue, but we are happy that he has been able to fast-track it. We need to pass it. I know that we have a lot of interest in it. If we could possibly pass it today, I will be a very happy person. Like my colleagues have done, I would also like to congratulate our fore-fathers who started WECO. Some of us, were public servants then and we participated in one way or the other way in developing it. We must all give recognition to people like the late Masinde Muliro, Reuben Olembo and Festus Mutere, who sat for long hours on end to start the WECO. They also used their own resources as founder members of the college. If this was not done, the WECO would not have been started. In addition, it would not have been a constituent college of Moi University. More importantly, today we would not be talking about the Western University of Science and Technology (WUST). As Prof. Oniang'o said, when we have the inaugural ceremony of this University, we should give special recognition to those founders. They did us proud. Without them, we would not have achieved this. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want also to emphasize the fact that this university is one of science and technology. This is the in-thing for the future. If we want this country to aspire to the vision of 2030, science and technology must be the way forward. We already have a good foundation at this university college. I think we must build on it. We must expand its scope to ensure that we emphasize, particularly the technology part of it. We want to be practical, so that our people can aspire and develop in the way other countries are doing so, particularly the Tiger countries. Some 30 years ago, we were at the same level with Korea. But now, they are miles ahead of us because we mark-timed while they went ahead. They were practical. We should be practical to ensure that we develop our country into the technological or science age. November 7, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3443 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to congratulate the President of this country for having divested himself from being the Chancellor of all the public universities. I think we must give credit where it is due. The days when we had to wait for the Head of State to find time to be able to preside over graduation ceremonies, are long gone. There are many Kenyans who can play that role. I, therefore, want to congratulate His Excellency the President for divesting himself from that responsibility and appointing other Kenyans to play that role. I am sure that when the WUST is inaugurated, he will find it fit to appoint a good Kenyan who will be able to preside as its Chancellor. I think we must give that recognition to our Head of State. He did the right thing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are many colleges that can be constituent colleges of this university. We have a number of them in Western Province. Certainly those that come to mind include, Alupe, Sang'alo, Bukura and Kaimosi. They are already developed. We only need to incorporate and add value to them as constituent colleges. They will be a very good milestone as developing centres for science and technology in that Province. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want to ensure that this college develops. I would like to join my colleague, Prof. Oniang'o, in saying that clearly, for us to have this university properly established, there will expenditure to the public coffers. We must give it a good ground, although we do not want to invest in grandiose buildings and infrastructure. But, at least, some basic infrastructure should be there. Land is available for that. If we can use this university to conserve that indigenous and equatorial forest of Kakamega, by ensuring that research is carried out, I will be a very happy man. I hope we can do that because the land for expansion is available. All we need to do is to provide some basic infrastructure and the university will be able to expand. The people of Western Province are happy. This day is a proud day for us. I would like to urge all my colleagues wherever they come from to support this Bill. If we can have it passed and His Excellency the President accents to it as soon as possible, I will be a very happy man. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}