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{
    "id": 698354,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/698354/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 221,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Koyi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2792,
        "legal_name": "John Waluke Koyi",
        "slug": "john-waluke-koyi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this chance to also speak. Let me start by thanking the Senate, although they have taken long to bring this Bill. Having taken long, we expected no amendments but there are some. This is a very important Bill for small children because it can make them succeed in their future. There are people to blame in this Bill. Like where I come from, it is almost the same as what the Member of Parliament for Vihiga has just said. I can count Early Childhood Development Education buildings in my constituency. They are six and yet, I have 192 primary schools. Six of the ECDE centres are in premises of primary schools where the county government has completely failed. In the county government, we can either blame officers from the county government, the Senate or the Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) just like we are to be blamed when we fail on the NG-CDF. That is their role. The county government has not taken proper care of childhood education. We do not know the reason because the money has always been spent. If I spend Kshs500,000 or Kshs600,000 to build a standard secondary school classroom and that is from the National Government Constituencies Development Fund Board, they will take Kshs1.92 million to build a very small classroom that cannot even fit 30 children. Those classrooms are also not equipped. There are no chairs. The kids just sit on the floor. Most of the classrooms we are using in our schools are the old nursery schools that were put up many years ago. So, the county government must be accountable and serious with their role. They have failed to play their role properly. I have followed what my colleagues have said here. Those teachers went to school. You have heard that some of them - I do not want to repeat what my colleagues have said - went to school like any other teacher, although they are meant to teach in ECDE. What they are paid is peanuts. What we pay house girls is even more than what those ECDE teachers are paid. The county government has a lot of money, billions of money, but they have failed to direct it to where it is supposed to go. They need to equip classrooms. They need to equip those six classrooms they put up in my constituency. They need to provide those children with lunch. That is lacking. There are no books in the classrooms they put up. As the National Assembly, we need to put in more effort through our laws that will push the county governments to play their roles effectively. With those few remarks and due to time constraint, I support."
}