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{
    "id": 88190,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/88190/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 319,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. ole Metito",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Regional Development Authorities",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 199,
        "legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
        "slug": "judah-ole-metito"
    },
    "content": " Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. Although my party’s Secretary-General has really said what I wanted to say, I will continue from where he left – the issue of limiting the number of the masters and doctorate degrees students to 200. This shows that there is lack of capacity. It would be very sad for this country to have only 200 students undertaking masters’ and doctorate studies in public universities each year, given that we are talking of becoming a country with skilled labour. You also realise that this small number is only based on merit. I think that is why hon. Mungatana was talking of the demography, whereby the Coast Province and other areas are left out. The 200 chances for masters and doctorate students are chosen on merit, and not on needs. It is, therefore, important that the official Government respondent takes this matter into consideration, because one could be going for masters or doctorate degree studies, but one has no financial needs. So, basing the distribution of these chances only on merit will marginalise many people. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the HELB was started in 1952, when Kenya was a British colony. During that time, it was called the “Higher Education Loans Fund (HELF). As my colleague has said, the former HELF had the capacity to offer scholarships then. That was changed after we took over Government. We liberalised it through an Act of Parliament in 1995. Its mandate was changed to be granting loans, which have to be paid back. Since 1995, only 279,534 students have benefitted in all our public universities. The current enrolment in our public universities stands at 170,000 students. For 15 years, we were able to give loans to only 279,000. This translates to a transition rate of only 2 per cent of those who enrol in Standard One annually; as hon. Mungatana said, this is the percentage that makes it to university. This is a very small number. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that we triple this Fund. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is the issue of de-centralisation. Now that we have the counties, which we are targeting as the principal units of devolution, I was thinking that the problems we have had were due to lack of information, even though HELB has tried. They have had some achievements. For instance, the issue of online application. I know, is still limited to a certain number of people. We can enhance information dissemination by having officers based at the District Education Officers (DEOs) offices. I believe that we can have DEOs in all our constituencies, who will be dealing with HELB issues. If we could have officers based at DEOs’ offices to handle matters to do with HELB, those officers can visit secondary schools to explain to candidates how to access the HELB funds. Such an initiative can be of great importance. We also need to extend the access and eligibility of HELB to both private and public institutions, including to students who are abroad, as my colleagues have said. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, more importantly, is the issue of middle- level colleges. This Motion talks of institutions of higher learning. My understanding of “higher learning” is any institution after a secondary school. We are leaving out a lot of very important middle level colleges, which also need to benefit from this Fund. That is the level at which we get the technical skills. This is where we need to train our people in order to be able to achieve what we are targeting in Vision 2030. The process of downloading the HELB application form and going through it can be improved by making it a little bit simpler for the applicants to understand it better. There is also a lot of bureaucracy, where you have to start from the Assistant Chief. By the time you reach the HELB officer to whom you should hand your application, a lot of time is wasted. I feel that the information that the HELB wants to capture on that form can still be captured by simplifying that process. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, even at the undergraduate level, HELB is limiting lending to only those students who are studying in Kenya. Previously, when we were a British colony, we were extending the scholarships to those students who were going to study outside Kenya, so long as they were going to Britain, South Africa and the United States of America (USA). However, we have now limited lending to students pursuing undergraduate studies in this country. As much as we would like to promote our local institutions of higher learning, it is also good to diversify knowledge rather than be strict. We may have some students who may want to pursue their undergraduate studies outside this country. It would be fair for them, as citizens of this country, to be able to access and benefit from the HELB. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}