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{
    "id": 916812,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/916812/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 372,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13184,
        "legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
        "slug": "abshiro-soka-halake"
    },
    "content": "that has returns in many different ways. It makes sure that educated people contribute to the socio-economic wellbeing of this country. Therefore, looking at this in the narrow presume of interest is missing the point. I urge our Government to zero-rate the taxation of an investment of this nature. We have seen that investment to housing gets a rebate for saving and creating wealth. Why not get a rebate for investment into education? We are getting it wrong as a nation if we start to look and punish our students for their loans and the interest charged. I am for HELB to be a sustainable organisation, so that it can lend to other students. However, there needs to be a difference between students who can pay and those that cannot pay. We should not give blanket loans. When we were in the university, and even now, students are charged for loans that they are unaware of. I do not remember signing for a loan. It came automatically. What if I did not need the loan and could actually pay for it? We need to change the entire system and structure of loaning students, so that the most deserving students get the support they need, and those that can afford it pay for it. That way, we will be fair and equitable in our investment into our human capital. Madam Temporary Speaker, I was looking at the issue around defaulters being blacklisted by the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB). Again, it is punitive to blacklist our students for defaulting and punish them with non-employment or access to any loans. This becomes a vicious cycle of abuse of their rights to education. While we support the issues around the waivers for six months, which were done before, it does not solve the problem. Therefore, we need to rethink about what we need to do about this. From my point of view, we should look at this as an investment which has immense returns. In terms of law enforcement, there are cases where we should have law enforcers to arrest or enforce this. We need to look at the underlying issues of unemployment. We should create job opportunities for our youth and make sure that our economy, which is said to be growing at about 6 per cent works for everybody and not just the people at the top. Where is the economic growth? Has it translated into jobs for the millions of students that are churned out of the universities and institutions of higher learning? We should avoid talking of waivers and free things because we are a capitalistic nation. Therefore, we should think of how to create employment. Beyond all these underlying issues of unemployment, poverty and others that cause students to default we need to come up with other ways of finding solutions, as opposed to policing and having laws that lead to arrests, blacklisting or punishing of people who are victims of a system that is not working for them. We should think of how to accommodate them in the socioeconomic space of the country. Madam Temporary Speaker, the importance of education and other sectors cannot be overemphasized. It is time this country prioritised things. In this country, a lot of money has gone to corrupt deals. The Kshs7.2 billion that makes our students to be blacklisted is nothing compared to the first National Youth Service (NYS) scandal or even others like the maize, health equipment and dams scandals. I do not know where our priorities are as a country if we cannot zero-rate investment into our human capital for our needy students. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}