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"speaker_name": "Mr. Sungu",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand to support this Motion. Education is a human right. Therefore, it is inhuman to deny a child education, particularly if that child is an orphan. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kenya is a signatory to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. One of those tenets of that declaration is the right to education and equality. There cannot be equality if people do not have a right to education. It is common knowledge that there is a lot of pressure on the current bursary fund that is provided to secondary schools. In my own constituency, for example, we have countless numbers of orphans. In fact, the bursary fund money is never enough to go around, to the extent that we now try to supplement it with the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) money. Even then, we are still not able to pay more than Kshs5,000 per student, despite the Ministry's guideline that national school students get Kshs15,000 each. That alone should tell the Government the extent of the problem that we, as a country, face. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is a reality that the HIV/AIDS scourge is there. There are also other diseases. The combined effect of this, with the endemic poverty that is now consuming this country, is devastating. Many orphaned children are now living with their grandparents who are not even able to till their land, look after them effectively and provide basic necessities like food. We even have institutions that purport to look after orphans. It is a shame that some of these institutions, although they do get donor funding, tend to misuse it. In my own village, for example, there is a children's home called Rehema House purporting to be operated by christians. These people get a lot of money from donors. Whenever the donors are visiting that home, they collect children from the villages and take them there, to show donors how they have been taking care of orphans. However, the reality is quite different. This is because once they get this money, they use it for themselves and send those children back to their parents while spending it with their girlfriends. The situation is serious enough that this Government, in fact, declared HIV/AIDS and other such diseases a national disaster. There are countless numbers of orphans and vulnerable children as a result of this epidermic. We must now take this issue very seriously. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to appeal to the hon. Minister because he is my very good friend and I know he is a human being, where is our humanity if we cannot feel for that child who is orphaned? Have you ever imagined a day when you do not have a place to go to or a house to call your own? Have you ever imagined of a day when you live on the whims and help of others? It is a serious situation that demands a serious response! We know of those days, because we have studied the literature of Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist and so on, when orphans were disenfranchised, misused, abused and underfed. This should not happen in modern Kenya in the 21st Century! 2544 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 2, 2006 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Government intervention is very necessary, and education is paramount so that those children will, one day, become people who can fend for themselves and others. We know of cases where those orphans have even lost their land to unscrupulous people in the villages. They are losing their rightful inheritance because of relatives, who want to take advantage of orphaned children. Without education, those children will be confined to poverty forever! I, therefore, want to appeal to this honourable House to consider this Motion. I want to appeal to the Ministry to give those children a chance. There is no other patron who will care for them apart from us because we are the representatives of the people of Kenya, who elected us to this House! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when the Minister says that there is not enough money, we know that the Government has enough money. We know there is enough money in this country, only if we could channel it to those who really need it! We know that there are those donor funds which are abused by private institutions and even the Government. We know that a lot of money is lost through corruption. Imagine that only the other day we had people being allowed to go scot-free by the court, and we know for certain that if you steal a mango or a chicken somewhere in Western Province or Nyanza, if you go to court you will be jailed for seven or 15 years! Yet, those who are responsible for overseeing a monumental disaster in this country in the name of Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing and even mamluki are allowed to go scot free, but Kenyans are allowed to suffer!"
}