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{
    "id": 546925,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/546925/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 355,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kang’ata",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1826,
        "legal_name": "Irungu Kang'ata",
        "slug": "irungu-kangata"
    },
    "content": "the better. We have to expressly provide for that in these amendments so that those young children do not miss out on those loans. The other amendment I am proposing to the HELB is that if you apply a loan and that loan is rejected, you need to be given a reason by the Board on why your loan has been rejected. Presently, they do not notify students. You only make inquiries and at times they are vague inquiries. So, when you have a statutory obligation as HELB to notify students when their loans have been rejected, that is very important because you will be in a position to make alternative arrangement to finance your education. Secondly, you can also now commence the process of appealing. However, without that information, you can neither appeal nor know the way forward. Therefore, we need to have a specific amendment clearly giving the duty upon HELB to notify students why their loans have been rejected. Therefore, as you can see from my proposed amendment number four, I am stating that a student may appeal against a decision of the Board to reject his or her application for grant of HELB in writing to the Secretary of the Board. Hon. Deputy Speaker, my final amendment, which is No.7 has to do with penalty. When you complete university you are supposed to repay that loan and that is very good. We all know that the rate of unemployment in this country is quite high. So, we have so many students who may be unable to pay that loan. The problem currently is that there are now very grave consequences for non-payment of the loan. You may be listed with the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) which means you may be unable to acquire loans with commercial banks. Presently, we have other entities apart from commercial banks which are taking people to the CRB. A person who is unemployed, therefore, suffers two forms of prejudices: You cannot get a loan from a bank and already you have a liability with HELB. To cure that problem, this amendment proposes that if you are unemployed and you do a letter, maybe, an affidavit--- In my original drafting I had proposed an affidavit because one can always recant a letter. If you recant an affidavit you can easily be taken to court. So, you do an affidavit and tell HELB that you do not have a source of income. Once you do that, you are then not going to be levied a penalty. We do have so many unemployed students who have huge liabilities with HELB and they have never got employed. It is in public knowledge that there are several courses presently which do not have good employability. It is a sad reality that those students who tend to do these courses come from poor families; this is because if you are rich then you are able to pay for your child to do a more prestigious course like medicine or engineering. However, if you are poor you are forced to take up any course that the Joint Admissions Board (JAB) or its successor gives you. Therefore, we end up having a situation whereby students from poor backgrounds are the ones who are doing courses which are not employable. When they come out, again, they get a double jeopardy of being told to pay the loan from HELB with so much accumulated penalties. Again, they are also listed with CRB and so they cannot even keep a business. Therefore, this amendment is going to cure all that. If you can prove that you do not have employment, penalty shall not accrue to you. Of course, once you get employed it is morally and also legally important for you to repay the loan from HELB so that other poor students can benefit. 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."
}