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{
    "id": 591214,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/591214/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 280,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Okoth",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 12482,
        "legal_name": "Kenneth Odhiambo Okoth",
        "slug": "kenneth-odhiambo-okoth"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to contribute to this Motion for adjournment and thank the Hon. Member for Kisumu West for bringing it to the House. It is an important national issue. The education sector in this country is in a crisis. This explosion of violence, death, destruction and confusion that has happened at Maseno University is just the tip of the iceberg. It is what we see happening in a lot of universities in this country, which have been reduced to dens of tribal and ethnic mismanagement, where the leadership, surrounded and encouraged by their localities, politicians and influential leaders, think that each of the public universities should not be national institutions, and should instead be small ethnic enclaves controlled by their own people. We saw this in a number of universities that I had the privilege to visit as a Member of the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology. Kenyans really think of the universities that we requested to be brought to every county as opportunities to be ethnic cocoons for their own purposes and not for purposes of enhancing education. Maseno University is an exception in that sense. The leadership of Maseno University has been diverse. It is a shame that amongst the issues that have been raised, there is a link between possible financial mismanagement at the school, high-handedness in the administration and interference in the conduct of student affairs, allowing the students to practise their own democracy, and most importantly, succession issues – who will form the next leadership at that university. In the background of all this, the losers are the children, the young people who are getting educated there and their parents. Many parents will sell everything they have. If it is a fisherman’s family, they might even sell their fishing boat to pay for the child to attend Maseno University, with the hope that the child will turn out to be highly educated person who can contribute positively to this nation, earn well and support the rest of the family."
}