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"content": "western region, where I come from, had no single national school. But during the same period of 50 years, the regions around Nairobi and Mt. Kenya had over 15 national schools. So as to attempt to correct the wrong that was done, an effort was made by the Ministry Education, thanks to the late Sen. Mutula Kilonzo, to create a paltry five national schools in the western region. This was done 50 years after the other areas have had 15 national schools. These national schools have nothing new. There are even better schools in the same region that were not elevated to this status. If somebody thought those five were good enough, they left out other giants in our region that would have benefited. By this I mean the five schools were only limited to Bunyore Girls High School, Kamusinga Boys High Schools, Lugulu Girls High School, Kakamega High School and Butere Girls High School. Mr. Speaker, Sir, an important resource like this one should not be decided on in the absence of the National Assembly and the Senate. Had this matter been tabled before the National Assembly then, probably this wrong would have been corrected. But because that was not done, we still have sufficient time, now that we have the Senate, for us to expand the number of national schools as we move towards the objectives of this Motion, namely, creation of universities in every county. Mr. Speaker, Sir, what is the current status of the establishment of universities in Kenya today? Kenya, with a population of 40 million, has 22 public universities. We can quickly compare this to a small island called England, with a population which is not so different from that of Kenya; England has a population of 56 million people; it has 91 public universities and 132 university colleges. This clearly shows that even as we run towards populist approaches of solving the intention of reaching Vision 2030 through provision of the so-called laptops to primary school pupils, the bigger picture is being missed because the industrialization status of a country is changed through research and technology. It is very sad that out of this 22 public universities that we have in Kenya today, again, Nairobi and Mt. Kenya regions host 10 of these universities so that he country is not left guessing which these 10 universities that are confined to Mt. Kenya and Nairobi regions are, they include; the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), the Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DKUT), Chuka University, Technical University of Kenya (TUK) in Nairobi, Laikipia University, the Multi-Media University of Kenya (MMUK) in Nairobi, Karatina University and Meru University of Science and Technology (MUST). We are simply walking the same path that our founding fathers walked when they skewed education against the rest of the country in favour of this particular region. We must object to this by supporting this Motion, so that development of manpower is seen to capture all regions, minorities and marginalized communities included. Mr. Speaker, Sir, since I do not want to speak for too long on a Motion that I suspect is fairly straightforward and which is not controversial, allow me to end with a plea to the Government. We already have the Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) in a community of over six million Kenyans. The Government should expedite the intended conversion of Kakamega Approved Primary School (KAPS), so that it reverts to the MMUST for purposes of expansion. The President has 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."
}