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{
    "id": 469743,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/469743/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 84,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Hargura",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 827,
        "legal_name": "Godana Hargura",
        "slug": "godana-hargura"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I come from the northern part of the country and this inequality still exists. Even though it was there during the colonial times, in our times, it still exists. This kind of a Motion will, to an extent, remedy some of that. If you look at the Northern Frontier District (NFD) which covers all the area from the Ugandan border to the coast, you will see that during the colonial times this area was closed. What we are talking about was brought about by the colonialists. They made sure that nobody had access to any education and before Independence, they only allowed in faith-based organizations like churches to come to the area. Among the jobs given to them was that they had to develop educational institutions and even health facilities. The Government did not consider that to be its duty. The colonialists took up the running of the Government. Right now if you check, you will see that the schools that are set up there are faith-based. This also applies to hospitals. You could find only one hospital in a whole county or even being used by two counties. The national schools were not also established there. There was only one national school in upper eastern and one in northern Kenya which is Garba Tulla High School. This one was allowed to die as a national school, and now it performs worse than district schools. This shows the kind of importance that the Kenyan Government attachés to education in some parts of this country. Therefore, this kind of a Motion will correct some of these irregularities in terms of access to educational facilities. You should not expect people to get educated just because an area has schools. You have to check the kind of standards there right from primary level to university level. The facilities provided by the Government to schools in northern Kenya are very minimal that a child cannot be expected to perform the same as any other child in this country. I will give an example. When pupils write their examinations, a few of them make it to the national schools. I have looked at a report form of one of the students. A school like the Alliance Boys School keeps records, up to Form Four, of the position that a student has achieved since he was admitted in comparison to the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) results that he got. I know of a student who was recorded as number 100 out of a class of 120 as his KCPE performance. However, he used to be among the top ten in his class. What does that mean? That means that at the primary level, access to quality education in some parts of the country caused the disparity of about 90 per cent compared to what other students from other parts of the country were getting. In terms of teachers from the Teacher Service Commission (TSC), whenever these teachers are posted to northern Kenya, they take this as a disciplinary measure. When one gets a letter posting him or her to northern Kenya, the first question that he or she will ask is; what have I done wrong? This is not taken to mean that someone will be giving service in this country. It appears like one is being sent on demotion or punishment. That is how teachers take it when they are posted to those parts of Kenya. That contributes to poor performance and inability to compete with others in getting positions in the existing national schools. 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."
}