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{
    "id": 817833,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/817833/?format=api",
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    "content": "Both you and I come from communities that provide probably the largest quantum of teachers in this country. Anywhere you go, you will find 70 to 80 per cent of teachers come from our two communities and they do a good job. It is not because they do not like going to these white collar-jobs to sit in big offices, fiddle with accounts and make big money, but they have a calling to teach and impart knowledge to help other people in other places. If you go to Turkana County, out of every three or four teachers, two will be from my community and they enjoy it even with the rough terrain. What has failed Northern Kenya is not Al Shabaab. They came the other day and it is now an excuse and not a reason for neglecting that region. It is a reason invention. What happens these days is that where there is a security failure and even criminals are striking and killing people, the perfect excuse is, it was Al Shabaab, even without investigations. So, criminals go smiling all the way because we have already profiled the crimes that have been committed without investigations. Madam Temporary Speaker, now that we have a new Constitution and devolution, the Committee on Education that Sen. (Dr.) Ali wants to look at this, together with him and my distinguished colleague from Mandera County--- I urge the Senators from Northern Kenya to enjoin themselves in the Committee on Education in their sittings on these matters because they are so important to the areas and the people that they represent. Primary education, contrary to what Sen. (Dr.) Ali said, is still a national and not county matter. However, when we are dealing with the rights of children, that boundary is skin-deep, as lawyers would call it. It is so thin that it should be ignored. I want to expect that Northern Kenya counties, in cooperation and collaboration with the national Government, have a master-plan of how we want to manage education for the children. One time about four years ago, there were disturbing pictures from Turkana County wherechildren sat under a tree and an Administration Police (AP) with a Kalashnikov on his shoulder pretended to teach the children in a school. There was no teacher or facility. At the end of the year, that child under a tree in Turkana, Mandera, Moyale and wherever, has to sit the same examination with children from academies and well provided for schools in Nairobi City and other well protected parts of this country. Those children are also supposed to pass and compete for secondary schools and universities. That is the height of unfairness. In fact, I dare say it is an abuse of human rights of the children of those parts of the country. Children are going to secondary schools to sit examinations in sciences and they have never seen a test tube nor entered a laboratory or seen anything that warrants them competing with those who are spoon fed everywhere else. This Senate as the defender of counties and their governments and the people therein, must take a firm position and obligate both national and county governments to take full responsibility for the plight of these children. Madam Temporary Speaker, security is a national function. It does not make any sense for criminals from Somalia – for those counties on the Somali frontier – to walk in and out of Kenya in such a predictable fashion, kill children, teachers and innocent parents and walk back. This happens and yet we are a sovereign State with an army 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."
}