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{
    "id": 767080,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/767080/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 70,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, I thank you for giving me the opportunity. The Petition before us is extremely important. First, I agree with my colleague that our universities are very important institutions in this Government. Secondly, universities are not only Kenyan. They are international in nature. Universities have students from across the world. Whenever we have challenges like we have had for a while, when CBAs are not implemented we have had closures and demonstrations. Students who come from outside Kenya have been put in a very difficult situation because they come here determined to finish their education within a certain time and they do not. It is with that background that I would like to support that this Petition be looked at notwithstanding the fact that I was in the same Ministry of Higher Education as a Minister and even before that I was a professor of the university. The thing that is worrying is the fact that a CBA by its very nature is about bargaining. When you have bargained and agreed, it is very important to consult widely to ensure that the National Treasury can honour what has been put forward. The challenges that we have had, and I have had this experience, is that sometimes when consultation is not done and agreements are not reached before the National Treasury is involved then it becomes a challenge to implement. I, therefore, agree that this is looked at by the relevant Committee for future’s sake so that whatever is bargained for is done within the limits. There are also institutions that need to be involved, for example, the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) should come in very early, at the point of bargaining so that we do not finish the agreement and then after the agreement has been done, then the SRC says that the salary is not there. It is very important that when we look at salaries, the Commission looks at the salaries from the salary of the President to the salary of the cleaner of the President; so that what is available for bargaining is clear. Again, you cannot bargain out of the blue, you must bargain within certain limits. It is also possible that a lot has been honoured. Maybe in this House, we have not received an official communication but from the press, we are told that some payment has been made. It may be important for that Committee to look at what has been done. I note that the Petition has more than the salaries that were being given. So, it is possible that this Petition can still continue even if the payment was done. The only one thing that worries me is this issue of statutory deductions that are done and are not paid by the universities. In the same Petition, the lecturers are saying that there are deductions that have been done but they were not paid to the right institutions, some including their loans. It is very important to understand what 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."
}