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"content": "Kshs1.8 billion. This is a strike in waiting. When the lecturers go on strike, we will lose valuable time for students. I would like that to be addressed as a priority issue if really the Jubilee Government cares about education and engagement of the young people. We already know that there is a backlog now especially after the last double intake in the universities. The facilities are over-stretched. If our universities go on strike now, it means that studies will be stretched and affected. Let us not play with fire. Let us figure out a way to get that Kshs1.8 billion to the university lecturers. That is their right and it is the only just and proper thing to do. A budget is a moral document. It sets out our priorities. If we say that lecturers who are legally owed Kshs1.8 billion will not get the money, it means that we do not care and they might as well stop working. That will be a great disservice to our young people and, surely, that is not the message that the Jubilee Government promised during the campaigns. Under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC),there is a typo there: Recruitment of 20,000 teachers at Kshs7.6 billion. It is not 2,000 teachers; it is 20,000 teachers. Again, this is what we are addressing. Little boys and girls in Kariadudu, Mathare, Kariobangi, Kibera and so on cannot have teachers and yet, we are pretending that we will spend Kshs6 billion to buy them laptops. Pray tell me, what will a child who cannot write their names do with a laptop next year, when they do not even have teachers? I think we need to re-look at our priorities. I will be moving an amendment tomorrow in concert with my colleagues at the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology to make sure that we take some money out of the laptop project and put some money towards the recruitment of 20,000 teachers. If we cannot get that number, Reverend Musyimi, I beg you because you are a man of God. Even Jesus said, “Suffer not the little ones.” What would Jesus have done? Would he give them teachers first or laptops? If we cannot get 20,000 teachers, let us prioritize and have 5,000 teachers or 10,000 teachers. That way, we will be on board. There is an item there on promotion of teachers. It has been allocated Kshs3.5 billion. Teachers have waited and waited. There is no other public servant, save for our security forces and the police, who do any important work than the teachers. Our teachers do more important work than what we do here in Parliament. I agree we do important work here in Parliament, but we would never be here without the work that our teachers do. Please, do not shortchange our children the way we are doing here with the reduction of the allocations meant for teachers and refusing to pay the lecturers. I would like to talk about free day secondary education, especially in Nairobi where we have a shortage of boarding schools and a huge population of young people who are in need of secondary education. Free day secondary education has been nothing but a promise that is yet to be fulfilled. We call it free but it has hidden caveats and costs that people have to pay for. We are only requesting for Kshs3 billion. Again, this will benefit the whole country. We are politicians here. My friends, this is where we are going to get votes. Let us make sure that our young people get free secondary education so that, in 2017, they will appreciate that we had a Jubilee Government policy and that this Parliament passed budgets that responded to their needs. That way, the Jubilee Government may be voted in a second time. That is free advice from me."
}