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{
"id": 935186,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/935186/?format=api",
"text_counter": 206,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Butere, ANC",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Nicholas Mwale",
"speaker": {
"id": 13311,
"legal_name": "Nicholas Scott Tindi Mwale",
"slug": "nicholas-scott-tindi-mwale"
},
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this very important Bill as presented by my colleague, Hon. Joyce. My colleagues have already indicated so many factors as to why we need to have this Bill go through. My focus mainly will be on the infrastructure. In most schools or learning institutions in this country, when we talk of development, we just look at the buildings that are being built; we do not really look at how prepared we will be in case we have an emergency in that school. During my education journey, I went through Musingu High School. In 2003, when I was in Form III, we had two emergency scenarios. Those two emergency scenarios caused three students to lose their lives due to lack of emergency exit. In the first incident, we had a fire outbreak in my dormitory, which was so congested with very small windows without any ceiling. It was built by the colonialists. Many students got trapped inside and we had to step on other students for us to get out. Therefore, we lost one life and many of the students were burned while others broke their arms and legs, among other injuries. In the same year, lightning struck the school, especially the library, and the school did not have a lightning arrester. We had a lot of causalities. A lot of students suffered. If you look at the infrastructure in government offices and in private sector offices in big towns in this country, you will see that they have not complied with the safety rules. Before one is given approval to convert a structure into an urban office or rental house, one has to abide by the safety guidelines, one of which is ensuring that there are many ways of accessing the building. You must ensure that even handicapped people on wheelchairs can access the building. You put a lift and the normal staircase. You must fit the building with smoke detectors in the ceilings and place fire extinguishers at strategic places. Even basement parking must have safety measures. However, when it comes to learning institutions – where we have many Kenyans who are below the age of 18 years – we never look at ways in which to improve the safety and security of people there. We do not look into ways of minimising the chances of having casualties in case of emergency scenarios unfolding in schools. Therefore, this Bill is very important. It is only about the learning institutions. When we talk about learning institutions, we should extend to the teachers’ quarters, where teachers live and where subordinate staff lives in those schools. This is because we might talk about learning institutions and people concentrate on libraries, classrooms and administration blocks but they leave out the houses where subordinate staff live, or even where livestock that is owned by schools live. Therefore, we need to look at it in totality. When you talk about a learning institution improving the curriculum development, it should be all round. Therefore, it is imperative that we adhere to this. The Government needs to allocate enough funds and not look at it as if it is something to be given some little attention. The Government needs to allocate a lot of funds. When we get to budgeting, I urge my colleagues in this House to be very sensitive on this matter so that we have our kids living in an environment that is well protected; that provides security and encourages parents to take their kids to those schools. I support my colleague, Hon. Wanyonyi. Two weeks ago, I went for a leadership exchange programme in Pennsylvania, Bradford County, in the United States of America. I toured medical facilities, educational facilities and government offices. I support him that the schools over there are very well equipped. We even have security guards guarding schools. We had a scenario where the Al Shabaab went to Garissa University College and found no one at the gate. They killed so many university students. Therefore, we need to look into ways and means of protecting students in terms of curriculum and terrorism, as well as protection from many other violent acts, including rape. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}