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{
    "id": 546801,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/546801/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 231,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Mbarire",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 78,
        "legal_name": "Cecily Mutitu Mbarire",
        "slug": "cecily-mbarire"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Gumbo, I know you are still very excited. I wish you well in that Committee. Just make sure that you do not get caught up in the mess that we were caught up in. Be alert to people who go about making crazy records out there in your name. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am saying that we need to go beyond just providing free examinations and come up with a way of ensuring that certificates of students who have passed examinations are made available to them. We heard former President Kibaki, and later President Uhuru Kenyatta, say that all certificates that have been withheld in secondary schools should be made available to students. I have had cases of students who have come to me and told me that principals had said that they could not release the certificates. The Government needs to look into this matter, so that we can ensure that the purpose of education, which is to take a student to the next level, or enable to get a job, is made possible. It is important for this Parliament to stay true to basic needs which are well enshrined in the Constitution. These include education, food, health and shelter. I hope that after the passage of this Bill, as Parliament, we will look into the issue of healthcare. Without digressing, Members of this Parliament need to seriously relook at the new rates of the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF). Kenyans cannot afford Kshs500 every month to be members of NHIF. If, indeed, we want to have universal education and healthcare for all Kenyans, we must revise those rates. They are way above the ability of Kenyans. In my own constituency, people have told me to come to this House and tell the Cabinet Secretary for Health and the President that they cannot afford Kshs500. I hope that after the education sector, we will also go and look into the health sector and ensure that Kenyans are made to pay what is affordable. Anything above Kshs200 would be hard for Kenyans to afford, especially farmers and people in the Jua Kali sector, who depend on less than a dollar a day. It is absolutely unfair for us, as Members of Parliament, to sit here and not mention that issue, which is a big concern to Kenyans. With those few remarks, I support."
}