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{
    "id": 594953,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/594953/?format=api",
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    "content": "certificates hence missing opportunities. As you are aware, those who do not collect their certificates are from poor families. Some of them are orphans. Therefore, they go without certificates and never avail themselves for job opportunities. I wish to go to my brief story. After 45 Members of the National Assembly signed a petition to former President Mwai Kibaki and when it was clear to the Government that the case I had filed in court was succeeding, the Government rushed, issued a statement and ordered that all certificates be released. So, the certificates were released on the instructions of former President Mwai Kibaki, who I thank very much for that action. However, only all certificates that were held up to 2006 were released. I think it was political because we were going to elections but I thought since the President was supposed to implement the Motion that had been passed by the House, that no more certificates would be released. I thought that was the end of the matter but little did I know that certificates continued to be withheld by schools from 2007 to date. Therefore, you can imagine the enormous loss that this country has suffered and the suffering that those who have graduated and have been unable to collect their certificates have gone through; including, recently when recruitment of the armed forces was going on, many of them did not avail themselves because the conditions are that you must produce the original certificate. Madam Temporary Speaker, I did not give up on that. In December, 2012, with the assistance of the late Minister for Education, hon. Mutula Kilonzo, I introduced an amendment to the Kenya National Examinations Council Act. It read as follows:- “10(b) award of certificates or diplomas to candidates in all examinations and such certificates or diplomas shall not be withheld from the candidate by any person or institution.” That amendment was passed unanimously by the 10th Parliament. Again, I thought that the matter was settled. You may recall that during our election campaigns for 2013, we promised parents that there would be no more withholding of certificates because the National Assembly had passed this amendment. However, we were not done yet. As we speak, this law notwithstanding, heads of schools continue to unlawfully keep these certificates against the law. So, it is against this background that I felt that the war that we started in 2004 has not been won yet, although Sen. Karaba and I thought that we had won. Madam Temporary Speaker, this is why I felt it is necessary to do a further amendment to the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) Act, so that we can get this matter finalised once and for all. I appeal to Senators to assist in putting this matter to a stop. The matter of teachers withholding certificates of students must end. It is this House that has this opportunity now to take advantage of this amendment and put this to a stop. I thank the Standing Committee on Education, chaired by Sen. Karaba, because they have deliberated on this matter for a long time. They even invited stakeholders and we had a meeting together and received very useful information and suggestions. However, let me go back to what I said earlier, that the law is very clear. Section 10(a)(b) of the KNEC Act sets out the functions of the Council as follows:- “(a) set and maintain examination standards, conduct public academic, technical and other national examinations within Kenya at basic and tertiary levels; The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}