Dr. Valerian Kilemi Mwiria

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 171 to 180 of 862.

• 30 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: At the outset I would like to say that I agree with many of the recommendations of the Committee but I have a disagreement when it comes to generalizing certain issues specifically to Kenyatta University (KU) even though at some point there is reference to the fact that many of these issues touch across all universities. My other disagreement is that following from what Mr. Munya said, we also did not dig deep into the involvement of politicians and other hired thugs; especially politicians even from the current Parliament who took part in fanning the trouble that took place at ... view
• 30 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: The issue of what happened at KU is extremely unfortunate in terms of the time that was lost by the students, the costs, the damage and how employers view students from our public universities. I keep on saying every time I go to universities that when our students riot, when there is no discipline in the universities, they are disadvantaged. Already socially disadvantaged students disadvantage themselves even more because employers then tend to go to private institutions like Daystar and the USIU where there are already advantaged students for employment because there is the impression that students in public universities ... view
• 30 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: The causes have been looked at but they touch on students and this is a fact because students and staff members were the directly affected. We were told of staff members who were actually involved. We have another report from the senate on Security forces and I am sure Mr. Koech and others have seen it. Why is it that they took so long to respond even when the Vice-Chancellor herself had tried days before to inform them? Having been informed that there was likely to be a problem, she told the view
• 30 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: intelligence service and it took forever for them to go and intervene. And the politicians themselves are to blame! Very unfortunately, the issue of deadline points to the problem many of our students are experiencing, that they were not meeting deadlines because many cannot pay. It is not because they want to do it; many of them is just because they cannot afford to pay within the given time. So, obviously, it points to the need for us to do much more in terms of empowering poor students and ensuring that universities do not increasingly become the property of only ... view
• 30 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: irresponsible. We must talk strongly against this kind of behavior. If there are regulations about when you should meet a deadline, obviously it would be wrong to ask universities to keep on excusing students who are not meeting deadlines because the university will not run. It cannot run, especially now that we have a big influx of students, and universities are forced to even have more teaching sessions than they ever had. Without deadlines it is impossible for them to cope with the incoming groups of students. We must also appreciate the point that has been made about interference by ... view
• 30 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: you find in the Government, people are compromised. It is similar to some schools, where teachers and some board members are compromised. This is also a problem that we need to address; it can best be addressed by students themselves by ensuring that they elect students who are beyond reproach and are not ready to be compromised. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in terms of improved communication, I think I have seen much more of that. Universities now have newsletters, bill boards and memoranda. There is an effort. We can do more. In terms of decentralizing governance, this is critically ... view
• 30 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: serious problem. The other day, I was talking to a Vice-Chancellor and he told me that they have serious problems with tribalism. A new campus was started at some place. A very senior person from that region came and said: “You know this is my son who finished Form Four. Please, train him to be a university lecturer and professor”. view
• 30 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: It is very serious. It is not a laughing matter. It is becoming extremely serious in this country that people are beginning to think universities are just their village schools just because they happen to be established in their own areas. view
• 30 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: There are issues of quality and I agree with the Committee. This idea of introducing parallel degree programmes and regular programmes bring in more students to universities and there is no capacity to address them. This has caused many problems. In fact, some of these problems we are talking about, for example, registration also come from the need for universities to keep on opening up and bringing more students without enough facility. In terms of justification, yes, let us agree that even as we do not like programmes, much of the monies that the universities use now to expand are ... view
• 30 Jun 2010 in National Assembly: and quality and also accommodating those who are not able to pay as much for university education. So, it is important for us to address the issue of equity especially with regard to education. This is because education is very quickly becoming a preserve of the rich in this country. This is a time bomb that we must address. If you say that these degree programmes are filled by young people from certain backgrounds, that is very true. Indeed, 60 per cent to 70 per cent of the students doing Medicine and Engineering in this country come from less than ... view