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{
    "id": 686447,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/686447/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 193,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Ottichilo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 131,
        "legal_name": "Wilber Ottichilo Khasilwa",
        "slug": "wilber-ottichilo"
    },
    "content": "The other issue this Bill is trying to address is the appointment of vice-chancellors in our universities. As most of my colleagues have already alluded to, most of our universities have become village universities. Where you find a university is in the village, the vice-chancellor comes from that village, the lecturers come from that village, the workers come from that village and everything is village. The word “university” comes from the word “universal”. Universities are supposed to be universal where education is the bedrock but, some of our universities are no longer universal. They have become village. We must address this issue on the appointment of vice-chancellors and ensure that they are appointed competitively. If possible, vice-chancellors should come from any part of this country or even outside Kenya to lead some of the universities. This feeling that all village universities must be led by village people must be discontinued. The issue of student associations is a very serious problem. As much as we would like students to have freedom of expression and discussion in terms of their welfare while they are in university, student associations in universities have become highly political and very lucrative. In fact, elections in universities are a cut-throat business. Some of us in this House are approached by university students to fund their elections. This means that students are willing to spend a lot of money to be elected to positions because they are very lucrative. We looked at the University of Nairobi and found out that the amount of money deducted from students to give to student associations is over Kshs60 million. The associations in each university earn millions of shillings. That is why they fight to remain in those positions. That is why we have professional students who have remained student leaders forever. On this matter, the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology will propose an amendment to ensure that any student leader cannot be re-elected twice in any university he goes to. Some of those students come to the University of Nairobi and are elected as leaders. After they finish their course, they move to another university and are elected leaders. We will propose amendments to ensure that once you are elected twice, that is the end of it. You will never run for office again. The other issue is on the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS). As our colleagues have said, this service must be very careful with how they place our students. You will find that students who have done very well in sciences or liberal subjects"
}