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{
    "id": 582964,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/582964/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 343,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, this is the kind of money this country can afford. This is the kind of money that we are seeing being pilfered, misapplied, mismanaged and stolen in public service. We have just witnessed an allocation of Kshs25 billion to the National Youth Service (NYS), money that is being handled in a very shrouded manner. Everybody in this country knows that health is a devolved function. The national Government has only 5 per cent of the health services in this country, in Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, Eldoret and a few other smaller hospitals like the National Spinal Injury Hospital, Mathari National Teaching and Referral Hospital and Port Reitz District Hospital in Mombasa. In this year’s budget, the Ministry of Health has a whopping Kshs110 billion. We can trim off Kshs17 billion out of that and pay the teachers. The amount of money being wasted through corruption and other malpractices in the Government is massive and even the President has said that corruption is uncontrollable in his Government. Madam Temporary Speaker, if this country does not respect and honour teachers, there is nobody else we can respect and honour. We are dismayed as a House for what we have been seeing the TSC doing; that is issuing threats upon threats instead of sitting down with teachers to talk. I do not think that my friend, Mr. Sossion, and his colleagues are unreasonable. I remember when the retired President Moi was faced by a similar position, he sat down with the teachers and talked and they agreed on a staggered implementation of the award that they had been given. What we are hearing today is the height of arrogance from the highest of office in the land; that is; “can’t pay; won’t pay.” This kind of idle and arrogant talk does not augur well for a country that is seeking to be at peace with itself. When you allow teachers to reach the level that they have reached, you are destroying an entire generation. Children are not in school, exams are around the corner and it is the teachers who are going to preside over and mark those exams yet there is an arrogant man in Jogoo House called Prof. Kaimenyi saying examination will go on regardless. Who is going to preside, invigilate and mark those examinations? This is what we call the arrogance and stupidity of a person who thinks that he is so courageous that he can knock his head against the wall ending up hurting himself. I have no doubt that at the end of the day, it is the Government that will eat humble pie because the teachers are right, the courts have said so and Kenyans in public opinion have said so. I want to encourage the Jubilee Government that we on this side; I know that my colleagues who are sitting in front of me - the distinguished Senator of West Pokot who will second this Motion - are all reading from the same page. Madam Temporary Speaker, after election, we went to court to challenge the outcome. The court decided that Jubilee had won. We did not agree with it but we respected the decision of the court. That is why we are where we are but when the Supreme Court which is the highest court in the land has made a decision and none other than the President says that he will not abide with what they have said; will not pay and cannot pay and teachers can do what they want, then we are not doing the right thing for the country. We must remember that each one of us in whatever station in life have passed through the hands of a teacher. Whether you are an engineer, a doctor or professor, you started and passed through the tutorage and nursing care of a teacher yet in our pecking order, the last persons we think about are teachers. The Kshs17 billion that we are talking"
}