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{
    "id": 441275,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/441275/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 308,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "These people want someone with very specific skills, someone who can bake a cake and serve it to customers who are enroute from Nairobi to Doha. I am told that the graduates of Utalii College, which on average used to produce 400 graduates of certificate level in hospitality, are booked for the next ten years by foreign countries; countries in the Middle East. Last year’s class of about nearly 300 certificate graduates of that college were hired before they graduated by Qatar and other countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE), among others. Let us refocus on skills and competencies. We have very many people who carry bunches of degrees; very bulky curriculum vitaes but are not helping this country. I am not against any discipline. We need anthropologists to tell us where we came from and what happened to us one million years ago. However, we do not need one million anthropologists to say the same things. We just need a few. We also need lawyers to help us interpret the Constitution. However, we do not need volumes and volumes of lawyers. Within the technical and technological fields, I am willing to help the Government reduce its attention and funding at university level training and invest more in middle level and even in certificate and diploma courses. Therefore, this recommendation about rejuvenating and providing infrastructure for our polytechnics cannot be overemphasized. The enrolment rate is very poor. Why is this? This is because the students cannot afford. Why are you giving bursaries everywhere else? We give bursaries in secondary schools and universities. However, there are no bursary schemes for children or students who want to go and study plumbing; the things that affect us on a daily basis. There are many Kenyans in Nairobi who can afford a plumber. However, how many Kenyans, building apartments in Westlands, will require a structural engineer? There are very few. If we had a carpenter, mason and plumber, they would have work to do because even in the poorest parts of Nairobi, there is some furniture of some sort. When one leg is broken, a fellow can be called in, fix the problem and be paid Kshs100 which would help them fend for their families. The issue of poverty would then be tackled in a very simple manner. The issue of bursaries to polytechnic students is something that, perhaps, I want to encourage the Committee to think of developing a Bill to tackle. You can take this country very far if you bring a law to force the Government to put some money to fund polytechnic students and also to invest in the infrastructure of the universities. Some of them use outdated technologies; machines that were used by Vasco da Gama to find his way to India are the ones that you will find in some of these polytechnics. I also agree that the term “village polytechnics” has demeaned a very---"
}