{"count":1608389,"next":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=147608","previous":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=json&page=147606","results":[{"id":1494262,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494262/?format=json","text_counter":699,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Bumula, DAP-K","speaker_title":"Hon. Wanami Wamboka","speaker":null,"content":"The books of accounts of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology disclose a dinner allowance of Ksh55,250 paid to an officer who was involved in the preparation of data with the Commission for University Education within the university precincts. That is contrary to Section 21(11) of the University Collective Bargain Agreement of 2013-2017, that states that meal allowances shall be paid to members of academic staff who are working out of their duty station where half of subsistence allowance is not paid. The Committee finds that expenditure unlawful and surcharges the accounting officer at the time the Ksh55,250 was given. Having noted the proceedings of the Public Investment Committee on Governance and Education and the examination of the Report of the Auditor-General on the financial statements of State corporations for the 2018/2019, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 financial years, I beg to move and urge the House to adopt this Report. We are coming up with a Bill to address the gaps in education funding. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I am sure you have seen the Bill in the Order Paper. I beg to move and call upon my leader, my Deputy Whip of the Minority Party, Hon. Mark Mwenje, who is our wakili in the Committee, to second. Thank you."},{"id":1494263,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494263/?format=json","text_counter":700,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Peter Kaluma","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":1565,"legal_name":"George Peter Opondo Kaluma","slug":"george-peter-opondo-kaluma"},"content":" Hon. Mwenje, who is the Deputy Whip of the Minority Party, to second."},{"id":1494264,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494264/?format=json","text_counter":701,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Embakasi West, JP","speaker_title":"Hon. Mark Mwenje","speaker":{"id":1429,"legal_name":"George Theuri","slug":"george-theuri"},"content":" Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I thank the Hon. Chairman together with my colleagues in the Committee for a job well done. From the get-go, I want to just highlight the issue of education. When he talks about education, you realise that it empowers individuals. Education is all about economic growth and stability. Education is all about poverty reduction. It improves health, promotes equality, encourages civil participation, fosters peace and stability, and drives technology and scientific progress. In a nutshell, it sets the groundwork for a better life. That is the mandate that all those institutions that have been discussed by the Chairman are mandated to do for the great people of western region, Homa Bay, Kisumu, Siaya, Kisii and Nyamira. I want to mention TVETs because they will play a key role in providing practical skills. As you have noticed from the Report, those TVETs have been facing numerous challenges. There is this negative perception that at times we found out there, where people think that TVETs are inferior institutions. No! Those institutions offer meaningful skills to our youth. We can use the skills from day to day. I have realised that getting a good carpenter, electrician or plumber is a big problem nowadays. Those are institutions that should assist us with such professionals. We must fight such vices because if there is a negative perception, then there will be less funding and support for those institutions. We have noticed that there is inadequate infrastructure. As the Chairman pointed out, there are un-qualified instructors. As a Member of Parliament from Nairobi, I would like to say from the get-go that I represent a constituency that has over 400,000 people. There are five constituencies that were split from the greater Embakasi Constituency. But if you count part of Kasarani Constituency, then there are six. If you look at the original five ‘Embakasis’, only one has one of those institutions that we are talking about, a Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The rest do not have. Embakasi West, Embakasi Central, Embakasi East and Embakasi South all rely on one institution that is in Embakasi North. We know the importance of those institutions. And from the get-go, we must distribute that national cake equally, even here in Nairobi, so that we can educate our young people. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I will now focus on the main issues that have been raised, although I will try and avoid some of them. The first one is poor funding to those institutions. We have many stalled projects. When we visited some of those institutions, including Rongo University, we noticed that there were projects worth Ksh1.2 billion. Monies that were The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."},{"id":1494265,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494265/?format=json","text_counter":702,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Embakasi West, JP","speaker_title":"Hon. Mark Mwenje","speaker":{"id":1429,"legal_name":"George Theuri","slug":"george-theuri"},"content":"disbursed were to the tune of Ksh800 million, but the project is incomplete. Why can we not do those projects in phases? If that money had been spent in phases, we could have partially opened some of those lecture rooms, libraries and have an ongoing project. That is something that the Ministry must look into. They must ensure that we do not have wastage where you just pour in Ksh800 million and if the funding does not come, then you just have an incomplete project that is not benefiting the students from that region. The other issue is on the staff. Every time we sit in a committee, there must be somebody who comes in and say that they are the acting vice-chancellor, human resource or finance manager. We basically have people in acting capacity in those institutions, and it is okay to be acting because it happens. But what happens when we go to an institution where somebody has been acting for six years? That means we have a problem right there. We faced a situation where people have been acting for such a long period of 22 years, as I am being advised by my Chairman. That is madness! There are times you find un-qualified staff who have been recruited. We had one institution where somebody said they are the accounting officer and when we asked for their qualifications, they told us they have a CPA II. They were claiming to be qualified and yet, we required a certified accountant to hold that position. We even noticed the lack of diversity in those staff. That is something that is choking those institutions. We were proud to see some institutions in that region that have actively tried to reduce that. You could see that four years ago, they had maybe 95 per cent staff from one community, but now they have 60 per cent. So, they were gradually moving there. But more needs to be done. Institutions with more than 90 per cent of staff from one community do not work. We noted that they fail. We must check on that. As Members of Parliament, we must be careful not to kill the institutions that are in our constituencies simply because we want to help our constituents. We should avoid damaging an institution that is likely to create more economic and employment opportunities for your constituents or region if it succeeds. We have faced that issue especially at Moi University. I am sure the Chairman will be alluding to this at a later date. Because of un-qualified staff, there is production of poor documents. Even the tendering documents for some of those institutions were pathetic. There was just no excuse for it. We could see a lot of illegalities have been done and more importantly, public money has been lost. That is obvious because of what we have seen. And this must change. Even on matters of audit, we have areas where we could not account and not just for hundreds, but millions of shillings. That is because there are no documents. There is money that was withdrawn and paid to people as sitting allowances and siphoned through one or more members of staff. There was no way to account for it. Therefore, those are the issues that we faced. There is an issue that was raised by the Chairman about consultants. One of the issues that I would want to raise is that consultants ensure that the first money that is paid out is always paid to them. Therefore, if a project is at 50 or 60 per cent complete, the consultant is paid 100 per cent. Later on, the same consultant comes up with a variation and the money has to be increased. Once again, he is the first person to be paid. We saw that at the Ronald Ngala Institute in Kilifi. A lot of money has been spent because it is a project that has gone on since the time when the Late Mwai Kibaki was the President. In fact, I was still at the University when some of those institutions began. I am now here as a Member of Parliament, two Presidents later - the Late President Kibaki and former President Uhuru Kenyatta - and now we have President Ruto. But we are dealing with the same issues. What we have seen with those consultants is unacceptable. We must ensure that any variation that is done must be supported with the right documents. We must ensure that if we are going to vary a contract and especially before its completion, we do not waste a lot money with the consultants. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."},{"id":1494266,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494266/?format=json","text_counter":703,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Embakasi West, JP","speaker_title":"Hon. Mark Mwenje","speaker":{"id":1429,"legal_name":"George Theuri","slug":"george-theuri"},"content":"The support from the National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG- CDF) has been amazing as has been mentioned with the situation in Suna East. We were able to reach out as a Committee, engaged the Committee there, together with the area Member of Parliament who immediately was able to support us. I encourage all those institutions to engage the NG-CDF. It must also be made clear that NG-CDF is not under the purview of Member of Parliament, but it is money that belongs to the people. We, however, intervened as a Committee to ensure that the people of Suna East get an institution. Finally, we found out that a lot of land is held by those various institutions and especially the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET)s. (I request for an extra minute or two as I second.) Let us allow land that was set aside by communities or individuals for the institutions to be transferred as per the new TVET Act. It is important to clarify an issue that was raised and that was touching on the Moi family. That there was a summon regarding a piece of land because of other issues, or regarding the impeachment that were going on. That is wrong. We invited the family, and in particular, former Senator Gideon Moi, purely on the issue of clarifying the ownership of a parcel of land that is supposed to be for a certain institution in the Rift Valley. It is important to make those issues quite clear. That is the issue we faced with quite a number of TVETs that were started by the communities. With that, I kindly request that this House and the Budget and Appropriations Committee consider supporting those institutions so that we can ensure that TVETs that are based in our constituencies and communities continue to progress, and that those children, young men and women who are there continue to be equipped with the right skills. With that, we will be able to firmly give a proper foundation to the young men and women of this country. With those remarks, I beg to support this amended Motion. I beg to second. Thank you."},{"id":1494267,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494267/?format=json","text_counter":704,"type":"scene","speaker_name":"","speaker_title":"","speaker":null,"content":"(Question proposed)"},{"id":1494268,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494268/?format=json","text_counter":705,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Peter Kaluma","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":1565,"legal_name":"George Peter Opondo Kaluma","slug":"george-peter-opondo-kaluma"},"content":" Hon. Kakai Bisau."},{"id":1494269,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494269/?format=json","text_counter":706,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Kiminini, DAP – K","speaker_title":"Hon. Bisau Kakai","speaker":null,"content":" Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to contribute."},{"id":1494270,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494270/?format=json","text_counter":707,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Buuri, UDA","speaker_title":"Hon. Mugambi Rindikiri","speaker":null,"content":" On a point of order, Hon. Temporary Speaker."},{"id":1494271,"url":"http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1494271/?format=json","text_counter":708,"type":"speech","speaker_name":"Hon. Peter Kaluma","speaker_title":"The Temporary Speaker","speaker":{"id":1565,"legal_name":"George Peter Opondo Kaluma","slug":"george-peter-opondo-kaluma"},"content":" Hon. Rindikiri, what is out of order?"}]}