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{
"id": 236302,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/236302/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Angwenyi",
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"speaker": {
"id": 326,
"legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me a chance to contribute to this very important Motion. From the onset, I would like to support the establishment of the Western University of Science and Technology in Kakamega. The Government is showing, yet again, that it wants to bring education to our people. It demonstrated this when it introduced the Free Primary Education Programme in the country. The Government is showing that it wants to create more opportunities for our youths to pursue higher education. I am aware that admission into our universities is limited due to lack of accommodation. I would like to propose a method of expanding our accommodation capacity in our universities, so that we can admit more students to pursue higher education. The cost of putting up the National Health Insurance Fund Building has escalated from Kshs1.3 billion to Kshs5.6 billion. If the difference amounting to Kshs4.4 billion was used to put up accommodation facilities for students in our universities, we would have put up, at least, 40,000 housing units. This means that an additional 40,000 students could have been accommodated in our universities. If we had saved the amount of money that we over-spent in the construction of the National Social Security Fund Building, where the cost escalated from Kshs1.7 billion to Kshs4.7 billion, we would have saved Kshs3.3 billion and the money would have been used to put up a minimum of 30,000 housing units for our students. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we have any surplus of funds in some of our parastatals, the Government should make a deliberate move to mop up that money and use it to put up accommodation facilities for our students. As you know, only 10,000 students can be November 7, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3447 accommodated in our public universities on regular and parallel degree programmes. This means that only 20,000 students can be accommodated in any one year in our public universities. If we make the savings that I have stated, we will be able to increase the intake from 20,000 students per year to, at least, 100,000 students per year. This will be about a third of the students who qualify after sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Examination (KCSE). The rest of the students can join private universities in this country. I hope that when we pass this Bill, the Government will move with speed to establish this university. We should not have another \"Kibabii Teachers Training College\", which was supposed to be put up in Western Province decades ago, but has not been put up to date. I believe that once we have passed this Bill, the Minister will move with speed to upgrade Kisii Campus, Mombasa Polytechnic and Machakos Teachers College to full-fledged universities, so that university education can be available to our youths everywhere in the country. The minimum qualification for students to join our public universities is Grade C+. We have not changed that. Students strive to attain the minimum grade, but once they have attained it, there are no opportunities for them to pursue higher education. Today, even if students attain Grade B, they do not get opportunities to pursue sensible university education. Therefore, Parliament should support the Government in its effort to establish more universities, so that we can create more opportunities for our youth. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, adequate funds should be set aside for our professors to conduct research, which should benefit this country. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}