{"id":686493,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/686493/?format=json","text_counter":239,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Tonui","speaker_title":"","speaker":{"id":1242,"legal_name":"Ronald Kiprotich Tonui","slug":"ronald-kiprotich-tonui"},"content":"Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to also contribute to this Bill. At the outset, I support this Bill. It is encouraging fairness and transparency in the recruitment of vice-chancellors and their deputies. That is so important so that we have the best people running our universities. University education is so important to all of us. Kenyans are so keen to ensure that their kids gets access to education and that is why we need a refined law to ensure that whatever goes on in the universities is well managed. Having the recruitment of vice-chancellors and their deputies being done in a very competitive way is a positive development. The issue of approval of academic programmes in our universities is also very important. Currently, universities determine their own programmes and I believe standardisation is not there. Getting quality education might not be there. Therefore, it is important for the Commission for University Education (CUE) to approve academic programmes for our universities so that we get the very best out of our universities and have uniformity in each of those courses. There is also the issue of representation in the CUE board for both the public and private universities. I believe this is also very important because they are key stakeholders in university education and they need to be incorporated. Where you are the subject, you need to have your input heard and considered. There is also a section dealing with revocation of university charters. This power has been given to the President to ensure that universities follow what is expected of them, so that we can have quality education. It is unfortunate when we see buildings collapsing because we do not have trained people managing the construction industry in this country. Therefore, we need to ensure there is quality education. It is unfortunate when we see our doctors misdiagnosing diseases and treating wrong diseases."}