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"id": 497509,
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"speaker_name": "Hon. Wakhungu",
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"legal_name": "Chrisantus Wamalwa Wakhungu",
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"content": "a D or D+, you start from a certificate course then you upgrade. In the long-run, you can even obtain your PhD degree. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we saw recently what the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) put in place. They want many law makers to be university graduates. This adds a lot of value. The role of a legislator is to make laws, represent and oversee. Of course, when it comes to representation, you can represent. But when it comes to legislation, it is, indeed, important that we support the idea, so that all legislators, if it works, have degrees. I want to salute some hon. Members of Parliament who have upgraded their academic levels. Recently, Bishop Margaret Wanjiru--- When you look at her history, she has come from very far. She went back and upgraded her academic standards. Right now we are also having a lot of messes in the county assemblies. We are going to have universities even in counties. It is going to add value as far as education accessibility is concerned, and people are going to access a lot of education. When it comes to Members of Parliament, it is going to be easy to legislate, represent and even oversee. Therefore, I would urge this august House that as time goes by, and in line with the Elections Act, maybe you can look for some benchmarks and increase the academic levels of legislators. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to mention again this great leader, the late hon. Wamalwa Kijana. Hon. Wamalwa was very generous. It reminds me of one time when, as a university student, I came around this Parliament. We were about four of us and we were going to Kitale. We did not have fare; we approached him and requested fare from him. He told us that he had Kshs1,000 only. Lucky enough at that particular time, fare from Nairobi to Kitale was Kshs250 per a person. This great leader gave us kshs1,000 and he remained with zero cents. He gave out all his riches to the poor people. This man was very generous and many people have talked about him. Indeed, it is time we recognised him. He was a man of openness and he encouraged his colleagues to open up. You can remember the famous phrases he was using like “ Raila phobia andRaila mania.” People must work together in the open without playing dangerous cards under the table. This is the virtue we want to look for in our leaders. We must look at each other in the eye, do things openly and without playing hide and seek games. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, hon. Wamalwa was a team player, and a transformative leader that this country admired. If Michael Wamalwa Kijana was still alive, I have no doubt that he would have been the President of this great country. Wherever he is, we pray to Almighty God to rest his soul in peace. For Kenya to move, we must recognise these great leaders who have done so much for us. I am humbly requesting this august House to pass this Motion, so that we recognise this hero and rename Kitale Technical Institute “Wamalwa Kijana University of Science and Technology”. This is because in the region we do not have any university. We have talked to stakeholders and they are excited about this. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I would like to request hon. Jacob Macharia to second. Hon. Macharia told me that when hon. Wamalwa Kijana passed on, he came all the way from Molo to pay tribute when his body was flown from London to Nairobi. Actually, he said that because he was the first one--- I know professor is a scholar and The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}