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{
    "id": 383202,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/383202/?format=api",
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    "content": "signed by the Moi Government and they cannot honour it. A government is a government. Secondly, that agreement has been partly honoured. In law we have a doctrine called estoppel. The Government and any of its Ministers and officers are estopped in law from denying the validity or legality of that agreement. Thirdly, I want to encourage the Minister for Labour, Social Security and Services to exercise some decorum when he is talking on issues of this level of sensitivity. This agreement was signed 16 years ago. To date, it has not been fully honoured. In fact, the teachers are not even demanding for new issues. They are simply asking this Government to honour the 1997 agreement. I first came to Parliament in 1993 when the salary of a Member of Parliament was Kshs22,000 and transport allowance was Kshs9,000 a month. By 1997 the salary of a Member of Parliament had risen to Kshs74,000. Today, the salary of a Member of Parliament is known. Madam Temporary Speaker, I am a son of a teacher and I have brothers and sisters who are teachers. They earn the same salary that my father earned in the 1960s. These are the social engineers of society. When you see great lawyers like yours truly, Sen. Wako and Sen. Orengo, they were taught by teachers. When we see a good Speaker like you, you were taught by teachers. When you see great doctors like Dr. Khalwale and others, they were taught by teachers. When you see professors like Anyang’-Nyong’o and others, they were taught by teachers. When you see all of us, the social engineers, we were taught by teachers. So, we must respect the teaching profession. We must respect teachers and honour them. Let us not give excuses. We saw during Moi’s time when at one time the police salaries were increased five times in two years, but for the teachers, nobody is talking about them. When you listen to those teachers talking, at some point they were actually begging the Government to honour the agreement that is 16 years old. They cannot be any fairer than that. All we are doing is daring them and calling them names. That is not right. The teachers of this country are responsible for our children. In this country, parents send their children to school at 7.00 a.m. in the morning and see them at 6.00 p.m. in the evening. The aggregate time a parent has with the children is just about two hours a day, that is, when you are taking your child to school and when you are having dinner at home. The rest of the time is the teachers who are the parents of our children. So, we must make it possible for them to work. Look at the teacher’s workload. You will find a teacher---"
}