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"speaker_name": "Dr. Laboso",
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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. First of all, I want to start by stating my interest; that this university is my university. Therefore, I feel a special need to contribute and to also find ways of making sure that we can get the university back to the university that it was or it has always been. Universities are the fountains of knowledge. Many of our youths and a lot of us went through universities and know what formations we were able to get in the universities. When we started looking at the unrest that took place in Kenyatta University, it was a most unfortunate incident because you cannot believe that a hall like Kilimo Hall which we used for the years that I was in that university was razed to the ground as a result of student riots. It is unbelievable that a sum of Kshs127 million went down just because of student unrest. So, I think this is a very serious problem and we really hope that the recommendations that this Committee has given will be taken seriously so that we never and not just in Kenyatta University, but in all the universities in Kenya, have to lose a student through riots. Even up to now, we do not know who killed that student. Over 200 computers were stolen from that building and today, there is not a trace of even a single one, and yet investigations were carried out and all the the arms of security forces came into the university after what took place but to date, as I said, we are told there is no trace of where the computers went or who killed that student during the riots. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I do not want to belabor the point but it is quite clear from our findings; I am talking as a member of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology, that there was a very clear disconnect between the students, the administration, and even the top management of Kenyatta University. It is clear that it was top heavy in the sense that most of the decisions were coming from the top and there was very little connection. There was a complete disconnect between what the students were doing. It came out more particularly clearly that after the student elections were held, it was as if the new team that had been put in was not recognized by the administration. In fact, there was a claim that one of the officials was actually imposed on the management of the students management body. Quite clearly, this contributed quite heavily to what took place because it was like the management was recognizing the old officials that had already come out of managing the students body and was actually taking the new officials for granted or ignoring them in total. Lack of communication was a clear cause of what took place in Kenyatta University. So really, like our recommendations have stated, more needs to be looked at into how that university is being managed and how to improve the relationship between both the top management, the staff, the teaching staff and the non-teaching, as well the student body in the university. I, again, do not want to belabor the issue of negative ethnicity. It is the saddest day when we see that our universities have been reduced to tribal institutions. It is one of the saddest things to imagine that students were being accused even by the management that this was something that was orchestrated, that students from one community or from a particular region are being accused of having conducted or leading the strike because they were opposed to the management which was supposed to be coming from a different community or a different region of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must make sure that we return our universities to the past glory where it did not matter where you came from, where the management of the university need not come from a particular region where the university is situated. We know that this is something that is happening but nobody is willing or ready to actually address the issue as it should be. So, again, I want to support this Motion so that if there is a way of making sure that anybody who is from that region does not become a Vice-Chancellor in the region they come from; you should rotate them and let them come from different regions. Let the staff be the face of Kenya; let all the staff not come from where the university is situated. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have heard from the submissions that we got about the syllabus, the completion or the lack of completion. It is becoming apparent that we are getting over-excited about the role of the parallel programmes. We are going overboard trying to get more and more students into the universities and, probably, at some point, compromising quality. That is why we are rushing syllabuses according to the students. We are rushing through the syllabus, so that we can get another group of the school-based programmes students coming into the institution. We heard the reasons by the staff of Kenyatta University; they complained about having to teach both regular and parallel students in the same classroom and not being paid for the parallel students. So, again, there is another question of management, and they are very much aware that in other universities, the lecturers are paid for teaching in the parallel programmes. It looks like, again, there are some issues around that in Kenyatta University. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will not again repeat the issue of the fees. Clear guidelines was one of the issues that came out. I just want to say again that it was very clear that on information, there was lack of clear communication. When a fine of Kshs1,000 was imposed on students, they claimed it was one of the reasons why the second and more destructive strike took place. There are a lot of suspicion between the management and the staff â both the teaching and non-teaching staff. There was no good working relationship; it was very clear that there was not clear and smooth working relationship in that institution. So, again, another call for dialogue and more clear interactions between all the stakeholders of that university. Of course the last one, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, is about the security in that university. Security is very much compromised. There are almost porous fences around the university and it was clear that, again, there were no good relations between the university and neighbouring Community. I make another call for there to be clearer working relationship between the university and the neighbouring community. So, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to support this Report and the recommendations and ask that not just Kenyatta University, but also other universities also take our Report into consideration in their programmes. Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}