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{
"id": 236716,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/236716/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Mwiria",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Education",
"speaker": {
"id": 190,
"legal_name": "Valerian Kilemi Mwiria",
"slug": "kilemi-mwiria"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to thank my Minister for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I would like to support the principle that all of us, from both sides of the House, are in agreement. We sympathise with the lecturers and we appreciate the great role that they are playing with regard to the development of this country. There is no doubt about that. The Government appreciates that very much and we have given evidence to this. Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o used to be a don during the previous regime and he knows that times were very difficult. It was under the same circumstances that I also left the university. If it was now, I would think twice. I would like to say that there has been a lot of progress. In 2004, the Government registered 3408 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 2, 2006 UASU. It is because UASU was registered that the lecturers are now able to rise and speak for themselves. This is good. It would not have happened before. In fact, when we asked for the registration of UASU, we were fired. That is how I was fired. It was just for the registration of a union. That is the first thing that the Government did for the lecturers. Immediately, we started negotiating with the lecturers in 2004, their salaries were raised. The lowest salary was raised by 62 per cent while the highest, that of a professor, was raised by 117 per cent. This is a remarkable progress. The point is that we were committed to ensuring that our lecturers were the best paid in East Africa. With regard to the report by KIPPRA that Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o has referred to, we never got beyond the recommendations. We wanted to ensure that we did not lose our lecturers to the other two countries in this region, given the circumstances. We, therefore, ensured that our salaries were better than salaries in any of the public universities in this region and, in fact, much more than in many private universities. I would also like to indicate that in terms of the United States International University (USIU), which is supposed to be better than our universities, not forgetting that students there are also paying much more and the Government is subsidising public university education, our lecturers are paid better than the lecturers there. It is just like a private doctor and the one who works at the Kenyatta National Hospital where there is subsidisation by the Government. We have to take this into account. Nevertheless, if we included all the benefits that go to our lecturers, their salaries are still competitive even with the best paying private university. We are not saying that, that should be it. We would like to even win the lecturers that are in our private universities and many others that are in other African institutions. We should be committed to that. Let us resolve the issue. Let us ask the professors how much they can bring in terms of consultancy and research. Let us also ask Kenyans who have benefitted from the past corruption activities what they can bring on board. When we talk about corruption, we must realise that some of those people who benefited from it are here with us, but they are not contributing a little bit to support education in this country. Essentially, let us see what we can do because it is a matter of national importance. We are under pressure that we have to do something. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I conclude, I want to congratulate our students for being very peaceful and understanding. I hope this will continue because we can solve problems without having to be confrontational. Finally, I agree with those who say that dialogue should be given a chance. When we first met in the offices of the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development with the vice chancellors, the Inter-University Council and the leadership of the University Academic Staff Union (UASU), I did say that we were willing to talk. We even requested the lecturers to initiate talks with us. But they had already decided that there would be no dialogue. I did, in fact, offer myself to be an intermediary between them and the Government. We should just talk both formally and informally to try and arrive at a compromise. We shall get nowhere by being confrontational. It is up to both sides to stop passing the buck until we address the issue nationally and appreciate the fact that we are all affected. So, I will be happy to be part of this dialogue. I have offered to dialogue with my colleagues in UASU and others, so that we can see what to do given the constraints that we have found ourselves in. The direction is for us to talk and see whether we can reach somewhere in the middle. The Government is offering up to Kshs204,000 for professors and UASU is asking for Kshs700,000. I am sure that we could reach at a compromise that is reasonable and which is not too much that UASU will be seen to be greedy and too little for the Government not to be seen caring. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir."
}