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{
    "id": 406139,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/406139/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 43,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kagwe",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 229,
        "legal_name": "Mutahi Kagwe",
        "slug": "mutahi-kagwe"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, the level of interrogation and interest in this Statement shows clearly that this is a matter of concern to all of us, as Senators, and leaders in the country because nobody would want any children or people in his or her county to miss job opportunities because of certificates. However, what has been proposed or some of the clarifications that have been sought by some of the Senators are actually different issues all together. For instance, Sen. Billow sought to know whether it is possible for a debt write off to be made so that if the money is actually owed, the Government can, as former President Kibaki did, issue a simple Presidential directive that those certificates be given. Tied to Sen. Billow’s question and the clarification sought by Sen. Ndiema regarding how much we are talking about, I do not know how much it is. All I can do at this point regarding that particular aspect is to promise the House that I will ask the Cabinet Secretary to get a clarification of how much money is owed to the Government by the various students and whether it is possible for the write off to be made. As for the issue regarding Sen. Njoroge’s question, why we did not first seek to make the amendments that are necessary in order for that to be done; all I can say is that sometimes it takes questions such as these ones to realize the contradictions that exist and, indeed, without discussing this matter, we, probably, would not have known that a contradiction exists. Mr. Speaker, Sir, having said that, with regard to the contradiction we are talking about, at no point does any law say that the certificates should be withheld. Therefore, it is possible to deal with this matter concurrently. In other words, it is possible for us to talk to the Government as we are continuing to do as a Committee and to ensure that those certificates are issued even as we discuss further. I would like to tell Sen. Njoroge that it does take a bit of time to issue a Statement. I sympathize with the students who cannot afford to pay their fees. It is obviously clear that students whose certificates are being held are students who cannot afford to pay, because they could have paid already. Therefore, what Sen. Haji is proposing; that they are holding certificates for only those who cannot afford is true because all those who have not paid, basically, cannot afford. It is a question of writing off for all those whose certificates are being withheld. Perhaps a consideration for this would be even to write off some of the ones which have been held for two years because nobody can leave a certificate in a school for two years when they have the money to pay. If they had the money they would have paid. The danger is where it is possible, for a blanket statement to be made such that even those who are able to pay are not going to pay on the basis that certificates are being issued irrespectively. So, there has to be some sort of fine tuning and a balance to ensure that 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."
}