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{
    "id": 245723,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/245723/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 234,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Sang",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 309,
        "legal_name": "Kipkorir Marisin Sang",
        "slug": "kipkorir-sang"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I would like to thank the Government for implementing phase four of the teachers' salary increment, which has been delayed for over ten years. While thanking the Government for implementing the agreement, I would like to say that the delay has rendered the implementation almost useless because the standards of living have really gone up in the last ten years. I want to urge the Government to initiate another agreement between the Teachers Service Commission with a view to having teachers' salaries increased. We all know that teachers are the most overworked people in this country. After working hours, they are still required to mark pupils' books, come up with schemes of work and lesson plans to an extent that they have very few hours to sleep. Teachers, therefore, deserve better pay than what they are getting at the moment, so as to serve this country effectively. Apart from salary increment, we need more teachers to be employed so as to cater for the heavy workload being taken up by the ones we currently have. Implementing phase four alone is not enough. We need more teachers and classrooms to cater for the influx of pupils, following the Free Primary Education Programme. I also want to urge the Government to employ more field officers in the Ministry of Education to cater for the number of institutions that are springing up in the rural areas. I believe that most hon. Members noticed that in the Budget Speech, the Constituency Bursary Fund was abolished. The fund is supposed to be catered for by the CDF. How are we supposed to take care of bursaries from the CDF when the fund is also supposed to cater for the construction of police stations and health centres, which initially were catered for by the local authorities? I urge the Government to support the proposed Bill, which will be brought to this House by hon. Karue, to increase the CDF to 7.5 per cent of our revenue earnings. That will help us to be able to cater for health facilities and police posts, and other facilities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to thank the Government for coming up with a proposal to reduce the number of vehicles allocated to Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and other Government officers. I do recall, in 1998, in my maiden speech, I made a proposal to that effect. I said that Government officers should be given a car allowance to organise for their own transport or take care of their own vehicles. We know the nature of our people. When they use a public facility, they do not care about it. They say: \"Ni mali ya Serikali!\" But when it is your own asset, you really take care of it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are essential services like health and education. Last Monday, I was shocked when I visited the District Officer's (DO) office in my district. I did that when I was informed that the Government intends to withdraw vehicles from DOs' offices. That would be the most unfortunate thing to do because, as you are all aware, there are strikes in our schools and disasters that need to be taken care of by education officers. So, if those vehicles must be withdrawn I want to appeal to the Government to spare the DO's office, Ministry of Health office and the police. Those are essential services, and that should include Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education."
}