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{
    "id": 555731,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/555731/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 133,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Oyugi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 444,
        "legal_name": "Augostinho Neto Oyugi",
        "slug": "augostinho-neto-oyugi"
    },
    "content": "Board knows the semester dates and when the schools start, we ought to have a chance that there ought to be timely disbursements. The second thing I would like to speak to is that there ought to be an increase in the amount of money that is available to the Board for purposes of making loans available. Not everyone else applies for those loans. So, it is possible for the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology, the next time they are doing their budget, to ensure that the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) has a lot more money than it currently has, so that a lot more people who apply for the loans are able to get them. We should not be talking about people being denied loans because it is going to be repaid anyway. So, why do we not make the money available so that anyone else who applies is able to get the loan? Apart from the money that we occasionally allocate to HELB, there is also the money that is constantly being repaid. So, it is possible to work out a formula where almost everyone else who applies for the loan is able to get it. Lastly, it is about something that is very close to my heart. You know for a fact that education is an economic and cultural right. Article 43 of the Constitution speaks very well to the fact that the Government ought to be making progressive realisation towards the achievement of this right. I grew up in a little town when going to university looked like fun. When my seniors went to university, it was fun to look forward to joining university because the Government catered for students’ needs. Accommodation was fairly free and everything else was made available. However, right now, we end up with university students who are bothered about where they are going to cook. So, they end up cooking in their hostels and end up burning the whole place. They do not even have places to stay. That goes contrary to the very aspirations of Article 43 of the Constitution. Whatever we ought to do, we should be making university education free and interesting so long as it is about public universities. The Government needs to do something and so should we as legislators to make sure sufficient money is available for people who join university. We need to make public university free so that people are not bothered about the difficulties of going to school. Students should not be bothered about where they are going to lodge or what kind of food they are going to cook. That ought not to be the business of a student. It is not his or her business to find out where lunch is going to come from. The Government needs to ensure that there is space and money available for our students. This includes money for tuition. If we can do something and ensure that we revert to where we were during the 1980s, then that will be laudable. With those very many remarks, I thank Hon. Irungu Kang’ata for thinking outside the box and trying to make the life of our students very good. I thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}