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{
    "id": 716019,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/716019/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 101,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "January 5, 2017 SENATE DEBATES 17 Sen. Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, all the issues on the report have been canvassed. However, various angles of the same issue need to be canvassed. I need to mention this on academic qualifications. I was in the task force that worked on the laws that are related to devolution. At that time, what drove us that to say that there must be some semblance of academic qualification for the Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) was in the understanding that these were new systems of governance. It was necessary to have some educated people to inform the debate in the Finance Committee, among others. Having reflected on this matter over time and although this Bill is postponing the qualification of degree for another five years, I have a different view. This is because when you go to an interview and you appear before the interview panel, it is expected that those who interview you have similar, equal or even better qualification than yourself. All of us who are seeking elective offices are appearing before Kenyan citizens who 70 or 80 per cent do not have academic qualifications. I agree with the public participants who made presentations and challenged us when they said that if the interviewer who is sitting in the panel does not have a degree or any certificate, who are we to legislate that the person is not qualified to run for office? I agree with them that in the fullness of time, we should scrap any academic qualification as a basis of entering into public office. Let the citizens sit down and say that they want to vote for someone who has a law degree this year and vote for someone who has no degree next time. This is because they are the ones who make the decision. They are the bosses who make the decision. That will help stop the craziness and madness where public officers and leaders who have been elected run around buying degrees. Some of them tell us that they sat for an exam on a day when we are so sure that he was having nomination for his county yet records indicate that he was siting for an exam in university ‘x’. I want to encourage the Minister for Education to take university reform very seriously. I have seen some people graduate with Phd, but they cannot write a single sentence. They cannot complete a sentence or pronounce basic words yet they are called Dr. so-and-so. This is because we have made having academic papers to be so colorful that everybody is running around. You are told that somebody got a degree from Kampala, but Mr. Speaker, he has never crossed---"
}