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{
"id": 1563802,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563802/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 33,
"legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
"slug": "margaret-kamar"
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"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for the opportunity to support this wonderful Motion. I want to congratulate Sen. Karungo Thang’wa for giving us this piece of Motion. As I thank him, we realize that we have not unpacked the Constitution of Kenya. The Constitution is the masterpiece of the law in this country and we need to unpack it slowly by slowly. Today, Sen. Thang’wa has dealt with Article 53(1)(b). We still have other things such as, rights of the children, that have not been touched. When we talk of the right to basic nutrition, shelter and healthcare, how do we monitor and measure it? I am saying this because all these are related and are tied. If we can free parents from paying school fees in primary schools, that is when parents can give their children good nutrition. Right now, we are attacking the limited resources that the parents have to pay school fees. While we are doing that, we should be aware that as a country, we have obligations that are internationally binding in nature and we should ensure that we comply with them. I just want to read one that came from UNESCO, where I used to attend. In 1999, I attended as a representative of Moi University, when discussions on free education were being done. Kenya is a signatory to these international conventions. The right to primary education at that time was free of charge. It was established by an international instrument, notably the UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education, Articles 13 and 14. With that establishment, Kenya signed. It was discussed in 1999 and it was signed in the year 2000. Then what happened in Kenya? In the year 2003, Kenya became one of the five countries in sub-Saharan Africa to attempt to give free education. So, in 2003, free and compulsory primary education was introduced. The Senator for Kakamega County has stated how it started. Kenya was celebrated alongside Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania in 2004, because they had made a huge step forward, and as I said, unless we implement that, the other rights of the children will be watered down. On (c), (d) and (e), only parents who are free from paying school fees can give their children balanced food, because they have to prioritise. When children come home and cry that they are at home when their friends are in school, it will force their parents to pay school fees and feed them less. That is why when we look at this Motion, let us look at it in light of the other Motions and let us unpack this Constitution properly. I support this Motion because it is what we should have continued to pursue. The conventions as established and signed by Kenya still talk of the right to free primary education. In fact, in 2001, in UNESCO, it was very clear that we were going towards The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1563803,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563803/?format=api",
"text_counter": 211,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 33,
"legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
"slug": "margaret-kamar"
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"content": "2015, when no child should be at home. The aim was to make sure that by 2015, every child can access education. In fact, there was access also, because you can be talking of free education that cannot be accessed. In our country, we know that we have different geographic situations. Some people have a school that is 20 kilometres away. So, access is supposed to be also looked at, because you cannot get free and compulsory unless it can be accessed. I would like the Senator to include access in what he is demanding in this Motion. This is because once this Motion is done, we will take it up in the Committee on Education and make demands from the Cabinet Secretary, to come and explain how we can deal with this. I like the way the Senator has gone ahead to propose to us the resolutions that we are going to give. One of the resolutions is to audit the funds that are allocated to bursaries. As the Senate Standing Committee on Education, we have been auditing the education sector by governors. We have done only nine out of the 47 governors. As we discuss this, something surprised us, that a governor can have only two vocational training centres and release Kshs700 million for bursaries. We asked this question. This thing is not even devolved, how come governors do not have any agreement between themselves and the national Government to enable them to do this activity that is not devolved? We have been demanding, as a Committee, that our sector be addressed in terms of what is in the Fourth Schedule. We told the governors that they should stick to the Schedule, they say, it is political right to give bursaries, and we asked, “Why is it politically right?” If you want to give bursaries, look for a way of getting a job where the bursaries are being given, as one of the Senators mentioned earlier. We need to know the cost because our position as a Committee to our governors is that there is nothing wrong with giving bursaries, but please, have an intergovernmental agreement, so that functions are followed by resources. We said, this is new money. If you want to give bursaries, you need new money from the national Government because this is not your function. If you tell us at the county level, it is the governor who can identify the needs more, the national Government will agree with you. We agree with you because we know those who are needy are closer to the MCAs and they are closer to the governor than anybody else. However, why do we not do a neat thing and establish a relationship? We said, CoG, you have the Summit with the President every year. What do you tell him when you go to the Summit if this is not an agenda? That is where I agree that if there is need, if they must give that, it must be consolidated, but the best thing is the answer that Sen. Thang’wa has given us. The reality on the ground is that children are at the mercy of parents who have disagreed with chiefs and MPs. We are being told that not everybody gets bursary. We got this from the same governors. We asked them, “Members of Parliament are doing this job and blaming you for following them all over.” They told us MPs are a bit discriminative or that chiefs are not identifying every needy learner. Why should we allow a child to be at the mercy of a chief or disagreements between a parent and a Member of Parliament? The positions they are giving us is that The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1563804,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563804/?format=api",
"text_counter": 212,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 33,
"legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
"slug": "margaret-kamar"
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"content": "those who did not vote for some people are not getting that money. This is what this Motion will free. Let us free our children from being under the mercy of anybody. That is why I like the resolutions this House is going to pass through this Motion. We really need to look at what the money is supposed to do. More than anything how can we free it, so that we do not discuss basic education? Madam Temporary Speaker, we know that in the Kenyan law we are talking about basic education. Basic education is from primary school to secondary school. We must stick to what we said in the Constitution. If we believed in that it is possible to have free basic education, why do we want to shy away from it now? Free primary education, that one we signed to it through international conventions, but when it came to our Constitution, we said we want free education up to Form Four. We must bite the bullet. Let us go for it. Let us reduce expenditure in all other sectors, but let this bring equality. Just as Hon. Mandela said, education becomes the equalizer. So we do not want to discriminate at the point of developing the brains of our children; at the point of developing professionals. Let us make it free. As I support, consolidation is not, in fact, just it. We need to know how much money the national Government has been spending. Members of Parliament through the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) talk about these bursaries as the only thing that has been given out to families equitably. Through this Motion, we should make sure that everybody gets it without being pre-qualified by a chief, Member of County Assembly or Member of Parliament. It is a pity that the Members of Parliament are using this. For the last two days that is what we have been saying. We are not against NG-CDF. Money must go to the ground, but they should not be involved in it. We need to have committees that can deal with NG-CDF who are independent. Otherwise our Members of Parliament are not realizing that this 85 percent money that is in the national Government has no oversight arm. This is because they have completely lost it and they are going after the 15 percent which is in NG-CDF. They need to rethink the approach that they are having. Yes, NG-CDF, let us have money go to the constituency, but that money should not be run by the MCA, if I may add to that. Madam Temporary Speaker, I support this and congratulate Sen. Thang’wa for bringing a Motion that will enable us to unlock one of the clauses in the Constitution that was supposed to have been a priority after promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya 2010. I support."
},
{
"id": 1563805,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563805/?format=api",
"text_counter": 213,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Nyamu",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. Article 53(1) of the Constitution of Kenya guarantees free and compulsory education to every child born in this country. We cannot make education compulsory and free, then on the other hand peddle bursary forms in a cartel-like style. By virtue of my connections in this Nairobi, I am able to call all the 17 Members of Parliament from all the sub-counties in Nairobi and get allocated bursary funds, so that I can share them among my supporters. This has been happening over time. The only condition they give is that the ID reads that they vote in that constituency. As a country, The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1563806,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563806/?format=api",
"text_counter": 214,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Nyamu",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "we cannot say that education is a great equalizer yet. What we have done is made bursaries the great un-equalizer. This is because the most vulnerable of society, who do not have connections, who are in the direst need, end up missing out on bursaries. If you do not have any political connections, if you do not have a phone number of any politician or members of his team, then you can forget accessing bursaries in this country. I also happen to run and be a patron of Karen Nyamu Foundation and often channel funds to sponsor secondary education through our Foundation. As much as I do the identification, quite openly, and on my Facebook page, I usually look for the neediest child with the highest marks in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE). After we are able to sponsor, say, 50 students who performed well in their KCPE in all their four years of secondary school education, after you are done with this exercise, instead of feeling satisfied, and like you have done something, the students who missed out on this opportunity linger in your mind, and you wonder what will happen to them. Will somebody come through for them? We have cases in this Nairobi of students who end up deferring their secondary education. They go up to Form Two and are unable to fund their education due to poverty. They drop out and when they get some assistance, they go back again after a year. Madam Temporary Speaker, this is not something that we should be condoning as a society. This Motion is one of the reasons we exist as a House. The Motion is very progressive. It is going to ensure that we create a level playing field in the country, and to give every child a chance at education. While we are at it, as a House, we need to come up with radical changes in our system of education. It is one thing to fund education and another to churn out students who are not ready for the job market. Our schools are churning out students who are being prepared to be job seekers. We need to inculcate an entrepreneurial culture right from the basic education, so that by the time they get to the Technical Industrial Vocation Education and Training (TVET) even the attitude has changed. Right now, it is even embarrassing to go to TVETs because they are considered institutions for those who unable to get the mainstream or traditional courses. I congratulate Sen. Karungo wa Thang’wa for being such a young progressive leader, always with his mind at the right place. I support."
},
{
"id": 1563807,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563807/?format=api",
"text_counter": 215,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. This is the most straightforward Motion that I have seen in this House. It shows that despite the challenges that the sponsor of this Motion has had in terms of political wellness, he still has some cadence to deal with the setbacks of politics and focus on legislation that can move the country forward. This is a forward-thinking Motion that the Senator of Kiambu County has pushed in this House. It actually repurposes him from the challenges of politics that have been wavy for him in the last few months. This is welcome and I appreciate it. What Sen. Thang’wa is proposing is not just an idea that could enable us have free secondary education, but it is an idea that, if well executed, can ensure that the country gets free primary education, free secondary education and free university education. This can happen if our leaders are bold enough to stop the greed of managing The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1563808,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563808/?format=api",
"text_counter": 216,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "resources for purposes of benefiting from it other than it benefitting the people. If they do that, we can actually have free secondary education and free university education. Why am I saying this, Madam Temporary Speaker? I was in this House when Sen. Thang’wa started this conversation. He did some math on the different bursaries that we have in this country I hope he will not forget that math when he stands to respond. He started from the MPs who are spending a number of billions of shillings to give out bursaries. Despite the fact that secondary school, primary school as well as university education are not devolved as per our Constitution, we have seen governors giving bursaries. They should not be spending the budget meant for devolved functions into national functions. We have seen governors spending not less than Kshs400 million a year on bursaries. This happens even in smaller counties like Lamu that Senators are always fighting for in order for them to get monies. Some counties have now gone ahead to spend to a tune of a billion in this monster called bursary. I understand the sense of access to education and how this could help, but if you take a wave and dissect how this bursary is manifesting in our communities, you will realize that there is a lot of wastage and leakages of those monies structurally. The wastage between Members of National Assembly and governors when delivering bursary means that what ends up reaching the schools cannot keep the children at school. The current capitation that is needed for secondary education is about Kshs65 to Kshs70 billion. That Kshs70 billion assumes that it is a day school which it is financed at about Kshs22,000 per student every year. If you do the math with about four million students, you will realize that the amount of money that is just between the governors and Members of the National Assembly is more than the capitation needed for secondary school education. When Sen. Thang’wa was presenting this idea of consolidation of bursaries brought to the enlightenment of this House bursary funds that are being managed in the Office of the Deputy President and the Office of the President. These bursaries then end up being a tokenism system. The sense of it then stops being access to education but glorification of the political class administering that bursary. I say that because you can go to the defective nature of these bursary allocations in different factors. If you track those leakages, you will see the leakages that I am talking about that can save us money to make the entire education problem in this country free. The education system in this country can be free from kindergarten to the university level. I will start with the first one, the inadequate funding of students. Picture this, you are invited to go to Agoro Sare Secondary School or Makueni Girls, as a young person in this country. You are then told that the school fees is Kshs60,000 and your Member of Parliament gives you Kshs5,000 as a bursary, which you have to apply through a committee that has been put together. After that, your parents have to queue for that Kshs5,000. There are times when they have to follow the Member of Parliament to give them that Kshs5,000 yet that student needs Kshs60,000 to go to school. How is this adequate funding for this student to acquire education? It defeats logic. It defeats logic when a student who is to raise Kshs60,000 or Kshs100,000 is given The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1563809,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563809/?format=api",
"text_counter": 217,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Kshs5,000. Most of the governor's scholarship only give Kshs5,000 to Kshs10,000. The only one that is different is that of Mandera County where they have what they call education financing for all the children. The students then have to go to the MP to get Kshs5,000, then go to the governor to get Kshs5,000, which is then supposed to fund their education which is in the tune of Kshs60,000 plus. If this was defrayed from governors and from MPs, the government would finance the entire Kshs60,000 or Kshs40,000. The essence of a bursary fund in financing education is not feasible because it is not giving the young people enough money to go to school. The Kshs5,000 that they give cannot finance people's schooling not even those who are in a day school. Secondly, there is political interference by those who are offering them; governors and MPs. Bursary by its nature has become a political funding mechanism. It is funded to people who have voted for particular politicians. It is not needs-based and it is not merit- based. This means that most needy people in our communities or the most merited for this kind of financing do not get to be financed. My third point is the issue of corruption in bursaries. I do not want to point out particular areas, but we can give data in a number of constituencies if this Motion gets concurrence of the National Assembly. You will find a Member of Parliament who wants to vie for governorship and has a bursary kitty choosing to allocate bursary to students who are not from his or her own constituency. They do that for political financing, then use that when campaigning in constituencies that are not their own. We also have situations where those Members of Parliament collude with teachers from other places and pay bursary for ghost students then get kickbacks from those monies. This is a leakage area that ensures that the money does not get to the right students. Another issue is untimely disbursements of these bursaries. If you consolidate these bursaries into one national kitty that is supposed to finance education system, all schools will receive those monies directly when capitation is done and that is why I like this Motion. The problem with the current structure of bursaries is that it is dependent on the mood, routine, schedule and the likeliness of the MP to give that bursary to the extent that you will find that a student who has been given a bursary today---"
},
{
"id": 1563810,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563810/?format=api",
"text_counter": 218,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Sen. Oketch Gicheru’s miocrophone went off)"
},
{
"id": 1563811,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1563811/?format=api",
"text_counter": 219,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Oketch Gicheru",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I seek your indulgence, was the debate limited?"
}
]
}