Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 518348,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/518348/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 245,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "harambee primary and secondary schools and they mushroomed everywhere because people felt that the colonial Government had not really invested in education for the natives. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I remember in those days, in the then Central Nyanza District, at Independence, there was no high school. The only high school was in Maseno, which was in the boundary between central Nyanza and northern Nyanza as it were. Of course, it was part of Nyanza Province but nonetheless, it was a school that was established by the missionaries just as Alliance High School and others. Then there were few Government schools like Kamusinga, Kakamega School and so on. Apart from a few secondary schools established for the natives, more schools were run by missionaries than the Government. I think gathering this from the experience of the Kenya’s first President Kenyatta, when they started Githunguri Teachers College as a harambee institution in colonial times, a movement started for raising funds for building schools, health facilities and water resources which was very good. At that point and time, harambee secondary schools and health centres mushroomed and then they were eventually taken over by the Government. Harambee secondary schools faded, I do not think that there is a school now called harambee secondary school. We do fundraising for the existing schools or to start schools which are then taken over by the Government rather quickly. As time went on, then harambee spread to other things and more recently it has become a little more ridiculous. Harambees are there for pre-wedding purposes, weddings, funerals and for raising funds for people to go abroad. Sometimes, funds are raised for somebody to go abroad and he or she never goes but you do not know where the money is. So the law that was then passed in the 1960s was meant to give some kind of control or accountability in harambee but it never did. So, hon. Koigi Wamwere’s Committee recommended a law that will improve accountability in the collection of public funds, but proposed several measures for limiting the province of harambees. When we started the NARC Government, harambees were actually banned by the Government and the people were very happy. But then I remember being in the Cabinet with some of the Cabinet colleagues saying:- “We have banned harambees and we are not doing it, but our KANU colleagues are doing it and, very soon, they are going to get political clout over us. So, I think we should relax this rule.” Then we relaxed that regulation and went back to the old ways or bad manners of collecting money for everything. So, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when I moved a Motion in this House to relook at public fund raising, this was the background. One, we have departed from the original purpose of harambees focusing purely on social welfare issues and we have expanded into areas which are rather ridiculous. Sometimes people do not look after themselves because they are waiting for harambees . But we also realized that the Government must also take responsibility of having institutions that limit the desire for public fundraising. For example, in the health sector, one of the areas where harambees are really helping is to meet medical bills. This is realistic because if you spent two days in Nairobi Hospital, God help you – and you should not really go there unless you can afford it – but sometimes you have to do so because you are sick; and all of us go through sickness once 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."
}