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{
    "id": 99119,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/99119/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 372,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Duale",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Livestock Development",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "Students Organisation, Union problems came up. So, we are telling the Vice-Chancellor and the rest that if the students feel they like “x” and “y” and they elect them as their leaders, the university administration has no business in dictating who to work with. It is the business of the students to elect their leaders. Then, I think, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is an issue of security; the Minister of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security must create a special unit that will deal with the riots in our institutions; police stations must be established closer to universities. You do not expect the OCPD, Kasarani, to man Kenyatta University! We must have security agents and police posts even within the institutions; they must have enough personnel. Even the recruitment of university security personnel must be done in such a way that they are vetted. People given security jobs must be of high calibre, integrity and people who have worked in the disciplined forces; they must be recruited competitively. You do not give the job of University Chief Security Officer to your relative, if you are the Vice-Chancellor, or to the relative of the Chairman of the University Council. Recruitment must be competitive; applicants must be vetted and the recruitment must be above board. Finally, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the fourth point is that when university lecturers get involved in student politics--- University lecturers, instead of undertaking their core mandate of teaching, take party, regional and ethnic politics to the lecture halls. I think this is the cancer this country is facing. If you are a lecturer and you are from Nyanza, you feel that you must take the politics of that region or your party to the lecture hall. If you are from Central or Rift Valley province, you go and represent your ethnic group in the lecture halls. We want lecturers to teach the core curriculum of the particular subject they are supposed to teach. It is very evident in this Report that some of the lecturers of Kenyatta University were, in one way or the other, involved in the strike that led to the loss of two Kenyan students; that led to huge destruction of property of Kenyatta University. Again, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is the issue of the Vice-Chancellor and the university management. We are talking about reforms in this country; we are talking about a new constitution; we are reforming the police; we are reforming our electoral system; those reforms must be undertaken in our universities! We must have democratic ways of dealing with students. We are saying that if you are a Vice- Chancellor or a university council member, you must create openness; you must create atmosphere for free flow of information between students and lecturers, between the university management and the community around. We are saying that in Kenyatta University--- This report is very categorical that there was high handedness; the element of openness was not there from the Vice Chancellor to the student leadership. You are not living outside Kenya; this country is going through reforms! The reforms must be seen in the private sector; they must be seen in the institutions of higher learning; they must be seen in the electoral system! I think if politicians remain faithful to politics, they give other sectors of this country a chance to run within their parameters--- Institutions of higher learning have their mandate and they do their bit; the private sector does its bit. I think if politicians remain faithful to politics and leave other sectors of this country to run within their parameters, institutions of higher learning would have their mandate and do their bit. The private sector should do their bit. We should leave regional politics, party politics and ethnic politics out of our institutions of higher learning. The institutions are"
}