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{
    "id": 442712,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/442712/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 206,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Elachi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13115,
        "legal_name": "Beatrice Elachi",
        "slug": "beatrice-elachi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Indeed, education is the key as we have always been told even back home. Today, 50 years down the line, many of us look at the way our pastoralist brothers and sisters have walked their journey through education. It has been a tough journey for them knowing that our system of education requires that you sit an examination whether you come from a harsh area or from an environment that you can learn. I also want to thank the Government for focusing on the education sector for the last 10 years. The issue of affirmative action has been raised. The policies that have come up are much friendlier to ensure that more students within pastoralist areas can join high school and university. The Jubilee Government has a robust programme of education. The Government has brought back the school feeding programme. We are also saying that we will have polytechnics within each constituency. The challenge goes back to the legislators of the National Assembly who have resources within the CDF to deal with matters of classrooms. They need to come up and support. At times, you will find that the amount given for CDF to go to the pastoralist areas is so much. However, you wonder why in Turkana County, for example, children still learn under trees. We know very well that there is some CDF amount that is almost Kshs90 million. The constituencies are now demanding for more money. It is unfortunate, as leaders, that we have refused to embrace the development reform agenda to see that our people settle in better environments and enjoy the services and the fruits that they have been paying taxes for. It would be wrong to say that we, as a Senate, will sit and watch the National Assembly increase the CDF to Kshs28 billion without questioning. We have a lot of money already within the constituencies. What do they want to do in their constituencies? What are their development agendas? We, as the Senate, must ask the national Government to work in collaboration with the county governments in the education sector so that some of these issues like lack of food and education facilities can be addressed by the county governments so that we find a solution. The other day we watched on national television children going to school not because of thirst for education, but because of poverty and starvation. Even their parents follow them to school to see what they are being given so that they can share with the other children who are left at home. If we are not careful, we will only celebrate a new Constitution and devolution. We need to go down and question our leaders on how they are spending the resources we are channeling to them. If we do not do so, we shall still have the same challenges. With the little they have they can transform their counties. They should also be accountable. We are talking about marginalized groups that have suffered for years. Now that we have devolved governments, in the next five years, who will we complain to? I wish the governors could even just take one sector and do it very well so that, at the end of the five years, they will pinpoint it as one of their successes. That is the spirit the Senate would like to see. 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."
}