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"id": 469752,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/469752/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "May 7, 2013 SENATE DEBATES 18 Sen. Musila",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, while on that Chair, you are supposed to protect all of us. I was talking about marginalization in education; right from primary education. As we talk about university education, we must also address issues of primary education and to a certain extent, secondary education because these are the institutions that produce students for the universities. I said that we will dwell, in this Senate, on talking about injustices and appealed to my colleagues to stand up and be counted so that we correct these injustices for the good of this Republic. The Senator for Migori hinted that he will be bringing a Motion on the establishment of the Level Five hospitals in the counties. I will also be bringing a Motion on the marginalization of counties as far as infrastructure is concerned. Therefore, we will have many Motions of this nature and I want to appeal to Senators who come from counties that have been favoured to support these Motions. By doing so, they will be living to the expectations of our forefathers who made this Constitution because it was made, to correct the injustices, once and for all. If you want to believe, take a stock of the student population in our public universities in Kenya today. You will, no doubt, find that the students of these institutions come from certain areas. That makes what the Chairman for the Education, Information and Technology Committee has said, that institutions can be anywhere and be of no substance. I challenge the Chair of the Committee on Education, Information and Technology to ask for statistics of the student population of our public universities and we see how many students we have from the County of Turkana, how many there are from the County of Kitui and how many come from the County of Meru among other areas. Unless we correct this, we will keep on singing the song of equal opportunities in the country. As the Senator for Migori said, in the current interviews going on, you can clearly see that some counties cannot even produce a candidate for the post of Principal Secretary, yet we claim that our education system is fair and the universities can be anywhere since they are accessible to all communities. I think that is a fallacy. Therefore, I urge, that in supporting this Motion, the Government deliberately starts immediately to establish universities in these counties, particularly counties that have no university close by so that at least, by the end of the five year term, as the Mover of the Motion envisages, we can at least count a number of new universities not concentrated on traditional areas, but concentrated or spread over the country. This way, we would be not only showing that this country has a uniform kind of development, but will also be showing that all Kenyans are equal and have equal access to facilities like education. So, Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to conclude by urging that the Government follows this spirit of the Motion, but not only start at universities; let us start at primary education by ensuring that, first and foremost, there are enough teachers to teach those kids in primary schools and then move on to secondary education and make sure that there are enough teachers in secondary schools to teach those students in order to prepare them to access university education. I gave an example of my own county where I know that there are certain secondary schools in Kitui County with Form One to Form Four, but with only one teacher employed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). 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."
}