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{
    "id": 383209,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/383209/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 258,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Karaba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 232,
        "legal_name": "Daniel Dickson Karaba",
        "slug": "daniel-karaba"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, thank you very much for giving me this chance to contribute to this pertinent Motion on the struggle the teachers have undertaken and continue to undertake without anybody sympathizing with them. I concur with all those who have talked here. I can say that I am a victim of the same. In 1997, I was a headmaster/principal of a school. I remember very well that we were the people who were consulted as to how the teachers’ plight was to be resolved. The good government of the day led by President Moi promised teachers that teachers will be given salary increment. So, from that time to date, teachers have been forgotten. It is with a lot of bitterness that teachers cannot get anything without going for a strike. To me that is not the best way to move, particularly so with the teachers. You have heard what other Senators have presented here. It is true that teachers work in very difficult conditions. When I was the chairman of the Education Committee in 2003 to 2007, we visited some parts of Kilifi, Nyanza Province and North Eastern. In our visits, we could tell teachers were struggling to make ends meets. Some of them go to class with their newly born babies because they cannot get housemaids who speak the same language and they cannot afford them. Teachers provide a vital service. Many people mistake the service as voluntary. It is service and it has to be paid for. Even if they are very many, you cannot say that it is their wish. It is not their wish. They are taking care of children. Some children are of very rich people. Those children would have been vulnerable if it were not for the sacrifice of teachers who have been there to take care of them. When a child joins class one he does not know how to write or draw a face. But he is guided through standard one to standard eight, then throughout secondary school up to the university level by a teacher. What does the teacher get? A meagre Kshs2,000 or Kshs3,000 per month to the dismay of the students who have been taught. I can give you examples. I am sitting here with people who were my students and they became Ministers when I was still struggling. Now we are with them here as Senators still struggling and I am sure they are ahead of me. What we need to do here is to make sure that the teachers are paid as much as professional doctors and lawyers. We have seen teachers languishing in poverty. Some of them cannot even afford rent. They cannot even afford to dress well like most of the The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}