Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 375299,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/375299/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 380,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "July 24, 2013 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 37 Hon. Ababu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Let me start by thanking hon. Njenga for bringing this Motion which speaks to a very important facet of our population. I have been a Minister for Youth Affairs and I can confirm to this House that one of the things that amazed me the most as a Minister was going around the country visiting polytechnics because at that time I was responsible for the polytechnics across the country. I travelled from Msambweni to Garissa, Busia etcetera . It was amazing really to see the innovativeness in our young people and what they can do when offered a platform or an opportunity to unleash that potential. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, late last year, I travelled to Korea to visit institutions of training that you would rank or rate at the same level with our youth polytechnics here. I remember visiting one particular institute called the Korean Institute of Advanced Science and Technology (KIAST). It is an institute you could easily put at the same level with some of our institutes here like the Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology. But I was amazed by the seriousness that the Korean Government attaches to these levels of institutions. I was amazed by the amount of the budgetary allocation that the Korean Government allocates deliberately to these institutions. I was amazed that the budgetary allocation to KIAST alone could be similar to the budget that runs the entire education sector in this country! So, first all, one of the things that we need is an attitude change. We have had a terrible attitude towards these middle- level colleges. Before I left the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports at that time we started a policy that we called “Feeling the missing middle”. This is because over the last five to six years this country went into a craze of upgrading every little institution into a university. The Nairobi Polytechnic is now a university. The Kenya Science Teachers College which used to produce fantastic graduates in the arena of science has been taken over. A lot of institutions that one would have expected to feel this middle to provide the technical staff required to power our drive towards an industrial revolution have ceased to exist and have been upgraded to universities. I was very happy last week to hear the Deputy President, William Ruto, announce that there will be no further move by Government to upgrade institutes of training at this level to universities so that these institutions can receive the necessary support to play the role they ought to play to feel this missing middle and provide the technical staff that we need. The reason why I believe that hon. Njenga’s Motion is one of foresight and vision is that I am amazed at the absence of support to the young people that we send to these institutions. I went to Butula Polytechnic and I was amazed to find students being trained in motor mechanics using a vehicle that must have been designed before the First World War and must have gone out of use around the Second World War. That is the motor vehicle that was being used to train our young people in motor mechanics. These are people we expect to come out here and deal with advanced technology of the motor vehicle industry. I could not understand this. I remember picking the phone and calling the Minister for Transport then, hon. Kimunya. When you go around all Government installations be they offices for District Commissioners, now County Commissioners, you will find a lot of vehicles lying there disused or unused because the vehicles had punctures or some mechanical problem. I asked the Minister why the Government could not institute a policy to mop up all the"
}