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{
    "id": 902321,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/902321/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 146,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute in support of the Statement that has been brought by Sen. Pareno. I want to thank her for highlighting this issue. I am not worried about interdiction because TSC has the powers to interdict and they have done it for a long time. My greatest worry is the victim who is a student. These students are victims of quarrels between grown-ups; between a Ministry and a union and between a Ministry and teachers who have disobeyed. Interdicting a teacher does not mean that you have sent the teacher away from Kenya. If we felt that it was necessary to interdict that number of teachers, I think the Ministry and TSC should have planned properly to ensure that we do not have students or classrooms without teachers. This is because currently, there are so many schools that do not have teachers due to carelessness and lack of planning. If the Ministry decides to discipline these teachers but eventually pay their salaries as they have always done, they should bear in mind that conflicts between the TSC and KNUT are almost predictable since they have always been warned by KNUT as a union. If the union wins, the victim remains the child. The TSC should plan differently to ensure that students do not become victims of a situation like this. The conflicts between the union and the TSC should have been handled differently. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in my opinion, teaching should have continued while they dealt with the process. If teaching would have continued, they would have dealt with the teachers during the April holidays instead of victimizing them. Alternatively, they should have hired other teachers before carrying out the suspension because they were not going anywhere; they are still around. We have had cases where teachers who are guilty of mishandling children and rape cases have continued to receive their salaries and nobody has been in a great hurry to interdict them as we are seeing now. The Ministry should reconsider the approach that they are taking because having a child in school as a victim of a situation that they cannot control is not correct or right. It is important that children who have to go through the same examination at the end of the year or after eight years, be treated equally. Mr. Temporary Speaker, the rights of those children have been violated. It is time we protected children who face such situations. There has to be a different way of punishing a guilty teacher. The TSC must find a different way of dealing with these issues. Alternatively, they can redistribute teachers from other schools so that we do not have schools where teachers are being victimized. This is because they are not victimizing the teacher but the children. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the Committee should handle this issue properly. We need to have a proposal from the discussions between the Committee and the TSC, to ensure that we never again experience this kind of situation in the country. It is embarrassing and shameful that we are making children suffer because of pride between two groups that cannot talk to each other. I support this request for a Statement and I believe that we will be able to handle it properly at the Committee Stage."
}