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{
    "id": 555654,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/555654/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 56,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Pukose",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1458,
        "legal_name": "Robert Pukose",
        "slug": "robert-pukose"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this amendment. In the past, university students have had no representation in the Board. It has been a challenge because their views are not taken into consideration because nobody is there to defend them. More often, even the people who are involved in giving out those funds do not understand how much the students require. This is a good amendment and once it is passed, we will have university student representation within the HELB. The other issue is about age. Many students join university at an age when they have not got their National IDs and it becomes a big challenge for them to access loans from the HELB. Therefore, bringing this amendment where their guardians or parents can be signatories for them to access these funds is a move in the right direction. More often, students come to us requesting for bursaries from the CDF and when you ask them why they did not get money from the HELB, they tell you that they are under age. Having a guardian or a parent as a signatory to access the HELB will make their lives better. The other issue is about repayment and giving students time to repay the loans. This is a move in the right direction. The HELB has been sending short messages to people asking them whether they have repaid their loans or not. Sometimes, they tell people that they have not repaid the loan. They need to update the records. The other day, I got a short text message telling me that I have not repaid the loan and yet I cleared the loan in 2012. How could I have got the clearance from the HELB when I had not repaid the loan? They need to update their e-system so that it can be up to date. The HELB penalises those who have not repaid the loan. What about those whose money they still retain? More often, you could over repay the loan and they end up having your money. Do they pay that money with interest? We need to move an amendment on this area so that the HELB systems, in this era of computers, can be efficient. Where people have paid excess, they should remit that money. This is because it is a waste of time if you go to the HELB offices for a refund. The Board should have a system that can refund any excess money. Therefore, it should look for a system that can identify individuals who have overpaid, so that they can reimburse them through M-Pesa or any other system. Lastly, on the issue of who got the money, they have to adopt a system of publishing in the newspaper names of students who got the loan and the amount each got. This is for transparency purposes. Whenever we give bursaries from our CDF, every student in university or college demands to be given some money. What happens to the one who has not got anything? The students who get money from HELB also want to be given bursary."
}