Hon. Members, as you are aware, this House has, in the recent past, passed a number of Bills which are now awaiting assent and subsequent application as law. The procedural timelines for assent to a Bill upon its passage by the House are found in both the Standing Orders and the Constitution of Kenya. First, Standing Order No.125(3) requires the Clerk of the National Assembly to present a Bill-- -

Hon. Members you can walk in and sit!

First, Standing Order No.125 (3) requires the Clerk of the National Assembly to present a Bill passed by the House to the Attorney-General within 14 days of its passage by the House. Secondly, Standing Order No.125 (4) requires the Attorney-General to present the Bill to the President within 14 days of receipt of the Bill from the Clerk of the National Assembly. Thirdly, Standing Order No.125 (5) requires the Attorney-General, at the expiry of the 14 days, to file a return to the Speaker indicating the time and date when the Bill was presented to the President for assent.

Hon. Members I have received enquiries from hon. Members on the status of certain Bills which were passed by this House and, in respect of which, returns are due from the Attorney-General in terms of Standing Order No.125(5).

These are:-

(i) The Indemnity (Repeal) Bill, 2010 which was passed by the House on 14th April, 2010.

(ii) The Price Control (Essential Commodities) Bill, 2010 which was passed by the House on 23rd June, 2010.

(iii) The Commission of Inquiry (Amendment) Bill, 2010, which was passed by the House on 15th June, 2010.

(iv) The Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill, 2009, which was passed by the House on 29th June, 2010.

(v) The Animal Technicians Bill, 2010, which was passed by the House on 8th July, 2010.

(vi) The Counter-Trafficking Bill, 2009, which was passed by the House on 20th July, 2010.

Hon. Members, you can walk through and take your seats!

Hon. Members, no returns have been received by the Speaker from the Attorney- General in respect of the foregoing Bills in terms of Standing Order No.125(5). I, therefore, direct the Attorney-General to file the relevant returns or otherwise report progress on this matter within the next seven days.

Thank you, hon. Members.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I stand to applaud your ruling and to thank the Chair for doing that because this matter had created anxiety amongst most of us, particularly on a Bill that this Parliament debated and, on in its own wisdom, approved on 14th April, 2010. That is more than five months. I would, therefore, like to request - as you have just ruled - that this matter be taken very seriously by the Government. This is the spirit the Government is going into, especially with regard to the new constitutional dispensation. If that will go on, then this country has a reason to worry. So, we want the President to respect the current Constitution as well as the Constitution that we are going to have on 27th August, 2010.

asked the Minister for Transport:-

(a) what factors hindered plans to have direct flights between the United States and Kenya; and,

(b) what the Government is doing to address the issue.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am sorry I got held up in traffic. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply.

(a) Plans to have direct flights between USA and Kenya were cancelled due to the security concerns by the Government of the United States of America.

(b) The Government has sought to assure the USA Government of the safety and security of flights into Kenya and is following up the possibility of the flights being approved.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, could the Assistant Minister confirm whether some of the security concerns were due to encroachment by slums around the airport, especially for incoming flights?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the main concern of the American people was the total insecurity in the country. They were also concerned about the take-off operations due to the slums which are at the end of the airport. The Kenya Airports Authority is trying to find a way of removing the people, compensate and relocate them.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to know from the Assistant Minister whether these concerns by the USA have been officially communicated in writing to the Government, so that they have a checklist of what they need to do before the USA can fly directly to Kenya. Do you have an official communication in terms of a checklist from them?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, so far the Ministry does not have any communication in respect of this security issue.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, is it the American Government which is concerned about security and not the Kenya Government? We see that Wilson Airport has also been similarly encroached on; there is a serious concern that, that airport could eventually die away. What does the Assistant Minister have to say about that?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would want to emphasize that the current problem with the flights to the USA has nothing to do with Wilson Airport. The problem is the flights from the USA into Kenya and back to the USA. It is not a matter of encroachment.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like the Assistant Minister to clarify whether this cancellation of direct flights from the USA to Kenya has anything to do with the travel ban that was issued by the American government.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would want to inform the hon. Member that every time there is anything going on in Kenya, the American Government issues a travel ban. Those travel bans do not necessarily relate to security. It is their own perception. This particular issue of flights from America into Kenya, and from Kenya to America is based purely on their security concerns.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to ask the Assistant Minister to tell us the true reason as to why these flights were cancelled. We have it from a very reliable authority that the then ambassador of Kenya to Washington, Amb. Ogega, and the then Minister for Transport, Mr. Mwakwere--- In fact, the Minister had flown from Nairobi to Washington. They had organized a nice ceremony. The Minister and the ambassador were to board that first direct flight from Washington to Nairobi. In the last minute, something went wrong. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it had nothing to do with security because everything had been organized; the ceremony was to take place. We want to know: Did this cancellation have anything to do with the fact that at that time the Government of Kenya was reluctant to be engaged in reforms? Now that we have passed the Constitution, could the Assistant Minister undertake to pursue this matter afresh and get these flights coming to Kenya? We need the economic benefits that accompany that direct communication between Nairobi and Washington. Could the Assistant Minister undertake to dig deeper and find out what is happening because this is not the answer?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would want to assure Mr. Mungatana that as far as I am concerned the security issue had nothing to do with the reforms. As he has requested, I will undertake to dig deeper and confirm or deny whether that was the only the issue.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like the Assistant Minister to be more than frank about his answer. The reason why this flight was deferred at the last minute was not because of encroachment on airport land, or anything to do with reforms; it was purely to do with threats of terrorism and Al Shaabab in Kenya. That was the reason. Could the Assistant Minister under the circumstances, confirm to the House that that was the reason why the flight was deferred at the last minute? What steps is the Ministry taking to ensure that direct flights between Kenya and the USA start as soon as possible?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would want to assure the House that the Ministry would want the flights from the USA to Kenya to start. Unfortunately, the USA Government perceives a threat possibly from the Al Shaabab, encroachment or---

On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. The issues that the House is deliberating on are very serious. You can see from the remarks of the Assistant Minister that he is not serious at all. The way he is speculating about the issue indicates clearly that he is not serious.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with all sincerity, the hon. Member wants me to speak on behalf of the American Government, which I cannot do. It is only their security issue. It would be wrong for me to be pressed to speak on behalf of the American Government.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the security concerns was raised by both the American and the Israeli governments. This was to do with lack of separation of passengers. It was not clear which passengers were exiting and which passengers were arriving at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). Their concern was that these passengers should be separated. If that is true, what arrangements have you made to ensure that problem is sorted out?

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am not aware that the issue of separation of passengers was the main reason why the American flight was cancelled.

On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Is the Assistant Minister in order to mislead this House when the Israeli Government has written to the Kenyan Government indicating those security concerns---

Order! The Chair is not aware of anything written between Americans and Kenyans. You asked the Assistant Minister whether he was aware and he said he was not aware. It is as simple as that.

If you think he is aware and he is misleading the House then you produce the evidence.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kenyans have suffered a lot while travelling to America because they have to go through the United Kingdom. What is the Government doing to encourage other airlines willing to do business in Kenya?

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the policy of the Kenyan Government as far as flight is concerned is open. Any airline that wants to carry out business of flights from Nairobi to the United States or any other place, the Ministry will be able to facilitate. We have no problem if any person knows such company that needs help, we shall help.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, could the Assistant Minister confirm the exact date of this cancellation? Could he also state what has been done since then to actually clear encroachments and other security concerns?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this flight cancellation happened sometimes between April and May last year. The American Government promised to revert back to the Kenya ---

On a point of information, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir.

Hon. Assistant Minister, do you want hon. Olago’s information?

Yes, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the sake of the Assistant Minister, the flight that was cancelled the last minute was supposed to be on 1st June, last year, by United Airlines of the United States of America.

It was Delta Airlines. The information is wrong!

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I just said that this happened last year between April, May and June. I will notify the House when the American Government decides to change its policy.

Mr. Mututho not here? We will come back to that Question later, let us move on to the next Question by Mr. Kiuna.

asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government when Nakuru County Council will buy land for construction of Fresh Produce Market in Mau-Narok Division.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply.

I have noted that the County Council of Nakuru never provided for the purchase of land for the construction of fresh produce market in Mau-Narok Division in the approved financial estimates for the year 2010/2011 Budget.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the council to incur expenditure on the same, it has to be provided for in the approved estimates. They cannot purchase the land since it was not budgeted for. However, I want to assure the hon. Member and the House that I have directed the council to prepare supplementary estimates for my approval to cater for the purchase of land for the construction of the said market.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I agree with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government, but we had requested for these funds in 2009/2010 Financial Year. Treasury promised to release these funds to us so that we could buy that land. However, it has now taken more than one year and no funds have been released to us. We are expecting these funds to be released to our constituencies. Could he assure us these funds will not be returned to the Treasury even if the council has not bought the land for the construction of the said market?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would just like to make one correction that no funds were coming from the Treasury for the purchase of this land. This is money that was supposed to be made available from the resources of the County Council of Nakuru itself. It would appear the County Council had other priorities and that is why they did not bring this as an item to be included in their financial proposals. However, I would like to assure the hon. Member that I have communicated to the County Council and told them that it is important that they make provision within their resources for the purchase of this land.

Hon. Kiuna, the last supplementary question, unless you are satisfied.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am satisfied.

( Mr. Mbau stood up in his place)

Next Question, hon. Jamleck Kamau.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have been standing here in the hope of catching your eye, but all in vain.

If you put on a white jacket and stand on a background that is white also, how do you expect the Chair to see you?

Proceed!

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I want to ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government whether he is aware that these fresh produce markets are supposed to be part of the Vision 2030 midterm programmes? They are scheduled to be constructed across the country in dotted areas. Maragua was slated for a fresh produce market and Maragua Local Authority set aside 30 acres. We are not asking the Ministry to buy this land. We set aside 30 acres of land for the same purpose. This was supposed to be implemented between 2008 and 2012. Even though we have set aside land, nothing has happened. I would like to get it right as to when the same will commence? Could he ensure this flagship project which is a pilot within Central Province does take off as scheduled?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to request the hon. Member to put a specific Question because we have now moved away completely from Nakuru and we are in Maragua. The issues there could be different. So, I would be willing to respond to it in a more specific manner later on.

That is a different Question. The Chair notes that.

Next Question, hon. Jamleck Kamau!

asked the Minister of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security:- (a) whether he is aware that on 13th April 1994, there was an accident along Kigumo-Kangari Road involving a GK 660F, a Land Rover attached to Kigumo Police Station; (b) whether he could confirm that among the passengers involved in the accident was the then Senior Chief for Kangari Location, Mr. Sammy Njoroge Mwangi, Case File No.AF/F/94, who has not yet been compensated by the Government. (c) when the Government will settle this claim.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply. (a) I am aware that a fatal accident involving GK 660F, a Land Rover attached to Kigumo Police Station occurred on 13th April, 1994, along Kigumo-Kagari Road. The accident was reported at Kigumo Police Station and accident File No.1ARF6/94 was opened. (b) It is also true that among the passengers in the police Land Rover was the then Senior Chief of Kangari Location, Mr. Sammy Njoroge Mwangi, and Administration Police (AP) officers. (c) Compensation can only be decided upon a court of competent jurisdiction and the Attorney-General’s Office.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank the Assistant Minister for that competent answer. I reckon that this case has been there for the last 16 years. It has taken a lot of time. I know that there was a court case in Murang’a although I do not have all the particulars with me. I will want to work with the Assistant Minister so that we can have this case sorted out. I am satisfied.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to advise my colleague that they need to fast-track this case because it has been lagging behind since 1994. I will make sure, whatever the court decides, that I fast-track it so that the family members can get this money. I am, however, very grateful that he brought up this issue.

Mr. Jamleck Irungu Kamau, I presume you are satisfied.

Yes, I am.

alimuuliza Waziri wa Uhamiaji na Usajili wa Watu:- (a) ikiwa ana habari kwamba watu wengi wa jamii zilizotengwa nchini (marginalised communities) hawajasajiliwa na kupatiwa vitambulisho vya kitaifa; na (b) ni hatua gani kabambe Serikali inachukua kuhakikisha ya kwamba watu hawa wamefikiwa na huduma hiyo.

Bw. Naibu Spika, ninaomba kujibu. (a) Sina habari kwamba kuna jamii ambazo zilitengwa na hazisajiliwa na kupatiwa vitambulisho. Ni haki ya kila Mkenya kusajiliwa na Serikali anapotoa ombi la kufanya hivyo. (b) Serikali imechukua hatua zifuatazo kuhakikisha ya kwamba jamii za kutoka maeneo kame zimesajiliwa:- (i) Kupatiana fomu na vifaa vya kusajili katika maeneo haya. (ii) Kuelimisha wananchi juu ya umuhimu wa kujisajili mara tu wanapofikisha umri wa miaka 18. (iii) Kusambaza huduma ya usajili hadi mashinani, yaani tarafa, ili kufikia watu wote wanaohitaji kusajiliwa.

Bw. Naibu Spika, ningependa kumshukuru Waziri Msaidizi kwa kutueleza kwamba hakuna watu wametengwa kuhusiana na vitambulisho. Ni muhimu Wakenya wawe na vitambulisho. Katika maeneo kama hayo utamkuta mtu ana umri wa miaka 60 lakini hana kitambulisho. Pia, watu wengi hutembea kilomita 70 kutafuta kitambulisho, kwa mfano, kutoka Baragoi hadi Maralal kwa sababu hakuna magari ya kusafirisha. Utafika huko namna gani? Katika harakati zangu za kutafuta amani, nimekutana na vijana wengi ambao hawana vitambulisho. Huu muda wote tumelia kwamba watu wetu hawana vitambulisho, je, Waziri Msaidizi anaweza kutueleza ina maana gani kusemekana kwamba sharti kila Mkenya awe na kitambulisho ilhali Serikali haitilii maanani watu kuwa na vitambulisho? Anafaa kutujulisha kwa njia bora ili tujue. Katika maeneo hayo, watu wanasema kwamba wao si Wakenya kwa sababu hawana vitambulisho. Ningependa kumwuliza Waziri Msaidizi atujulishe kwa njia ya ukweli.

Bw. Naibu Spika maelezo yamekuwa mengi mpaka maswali yamepotea. Hata hivyo, ningependa kumwunga mkono mhe. Leshomo kwamba sehemu kame, kwa sababu ya ukubwa wake, wananchi kwa kweli wana shida kupata vitambulisho. Lakini kama nilivyosema hapo awali ni kwamba tumetoa fomu hadi tarafa. Siku hizi tarafa ziko karibu sana na wananchi. Kutoka Januari, 2010 hadi Juni, 2010, tumeandikisha watu 2,975 huko Samburu. Kati ya watu hawa, tuna vitambulisho 616 ambavyo havijachukuliwa. Kwa hivyo, tunamwomba mhe. Leshomo atusaidie kwa kuwauliza wale ambao hawajachukuwa vitambulisho vyao kufanya hivyo.

Bw. Naibu Spika, Waziri Msaidizi amekiri kwamba shida ya usajili iko katika sehemu kame ambazo zina tarafa pana sana. Sababu ya watu kutosajiliwa ni kwamba Wizara yake hupeana fedha chache ambazo zinatumika kununua mafuta ya magari. Katika sehemu kame kuna Vetting Committees na vitambulisho haviwezi kutolewa hadi kikao kama hicho kifanyike. Je, Wizara hii ina mikakati gani kuhakikisha kwamba kuna fedha za kutosha za kununua mafuta ya kuweka kwenye magari ili watu wengi wapate kusajiliwa?

Bw. Naibu Spika, tumejaribu kuomba pesa zaidi siyo tu kwa ajili ya kununua mafuta lakini pia kwa magari. Tungekuwa na magari ya kutosha, sehemu hizi zingepata huduma ya kutosha kwa njia rahisi zaidi kwa sababu tungefanya mobile registration. Hii inamaanisha kwamba tungewatembelea wananchi kule vijijini. Ni matarajio yetu kwamba huduma zitasambazwa lakini kwa sasa, kila wilaya na tarafa zinatoa huduma hizi.

Bw. Naibu Spika, hata bila ya kuongezea Wizara hii pesa, ni kwa nini haishikani mkono na Wizara ya Elimu kusajili watoto wa shule ya upili? Hii ni kwa sababu watoto wa shule ya upili, hasa katika sehemu kame za nchi, wanapomaliza shule huwa wamefikisha miaka 18. Kwa nini jambo hili hamlichukuliwi kwa uzito? Ni kwa nini hamwandikishi walimu wakuu kama gazetted officers ili wawasaidie katika kusajilisha vijana wetu kutoka sehemu kame?

Bw. Naibu Spika, ijapokuwa walimu wakuu hawajaandikishwa kirasmi kama maofisa wa kusajili watu, bado tunawatumia. Sisi tunawatumia walimu wakuu wa shule za msingi na upili katika shughuli ya kutoa vyeti vya kuzaliwa. Lakini bado hawajaandikishwa kama maofisa. Tunawatumia wao pamoja na machifu.

Hoja ya nidhamu, Bw. Naibu Spika. Umemsikia Waziri Msaidizi akinena kwamba Wizara yake inatumia walimu wakuu katika shule za upili. Ningependa athibitishe kama wamefanya hivyo katika shule ya upili ya Lodwar.

Bw. Naibu Spika, kwa sasa hivi sijui kama mwalimu mkuu wa shule ya upili anashirikiana na wale maafisa wa kusajili watu kama ilivyo katika sehemu nyingine. Hii inategemea idadi ya watoto. Kama wako na hiyo shida, basi wawe wanawasiliana. Tumesisitiza hii na kazi hiyo inafanywa. Lakini kuhusu Lodwar, sijui vile inavyoendelea kwa sasa.

Bw. Naibu Spika, ningependa Waziri Msaidizi atuambie wana mipango gani kabambe ambayo itahakikisha kwamba watakuwa na magari na mafuta ya kutosha ili kwamba vijana ambao wameacha shule na hawajapata vitambulisho wapate kusajiliwa? Je, mpango huu utafanikishwa lini ili vijana hawa wapate kusajiliwa?

Bw. Naibu Spika, kama nilivyosema hapo awali, mipango ipo isipokuwa tu upungufu wa vitu kama mafuta na magari. Kama nilivyosema, tumeomba Wizara ya Fedha itupatie rasilmali ya kutosha ili tutoe huduma hii. Lakini ningetaka kuwaomba wenzangu pia kwamba ikiwezekana watenge pesa za hazina ya Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) ambazo zitatuwezesha kununua mafuta.

Hoja ya nidhamu, Bw. Naibu Spika. Waziri Msaidizi anaifahamu vyema sheria ya hazina ya CDF. Je, analiambia Bunge hili ukweli ilhali anajua sheria haikubali pesa za hazina ya CDF kutumiwa kununua mafuta ya magari yanayotumika katika shughuli za kusajili watu?

Bw. Naibu Spika, huo ni mfano ambao nilikuwa nimetoa lakini kama Mbunge anaweza kutoa pesa kutoka kwa mfuko wake pia ingesaidia.

Bw. Naibu Spika, muda wa kupata kitambulisho kwa sasa ni kama miezi mitatu hadi sita. Je, Wizara ina mipango gani ya kupunguza muda huo ili uwe kama wiki moja au wiki moja na nusu?

Bw. Naibu Spika, sijui sehemu ambayo inachukua miezi sita kupata kitambulisho kwa sababu hapa Nairobi inachukua siku 18. Maeneo ambayo yako nje ya Nairobi isipokuwa zile sehemu kavu huchukua siku 28. Zile sehemu za mipakana kwa sababu ya ukaguzi wa hapa na pale, huchukua siku 38 kupata kitambulisho. Lakini ikiwa mhe. Mbunge anajua pahali ambapo pana shida hiyo anaweza kuja ofisini na tutarekebisha.

Bw. Naibu Spika, hili Swali ni la maana sana na Wizara hii ni ya Uhamiaji na Usajili wa Watu. Je, watu kutoka jamii zilizotengwa ambao hawajasajiliwa watapata vitambulisho lini? Je, Waziri Msaidizi ameweka hatua gani kabambe kuhakikisha kuwa watapata vitambulisho hivyo? Sasa hivi kwangu kule, Turkana ya Kati, upande wa Kang’irisae, machifu wameandikisha watu 500 na wanawangoja maofisa wa usajili waende kusajili watu. Katika Napeilelim na Namorupus karibu 5,000 hawana vitambulisho ilhali ni haki ya Mkenya kupata kitambulisho. Kwa maoni yangu, Waziri Msaidizi hajajibu hili Swali kabisa kwa sababu hajatupatia mpango kabambe ambao Serikali imeweka kuhakikisha ya kwamba watu wote wamepata huduma ambayo ni haki yao kama Wakenya. Ningependa Swali hili liahirishwe mpaka Waziri Msaidizi aje na mpango kabambe.

Bw. Naibu Waziri, je unaweza kueleza ni mpango gani kabambe ambao unao sasa katika Wizara yako?

Bw. Naibu Spika, Swali lililoulizwa na mhe. Mbunge kama Wizara tumejaribu kulijibu. Lakini kuna sehemu ambazo pengine ziko na shida maalum. Nimesema ya kwamba tumeomba pesa ili tuongeze magari na mafuta. Pia, tunatumia maafisa wa utawala na hata walimu wakuu kuhakikisha kwamba tunawasajili wale ambao hawajapata vitambulisho kwa haraka iwezekanavyo. Kwa hivyo, kama Turkana ambayo naifahamu sana iko na shida hiyo, nafikiri itabidi kuongeza maofisa. Nikirudi ofisini, nitafanya mpango maalum ili tupeleke maofisa zaidi ili hao mamia ya watu ambao wako huko wasajiliwe.

Bw. Naibu Spika, kuna watu ambao wanasajiliwa lakini wanapoenda kuchukua vitambulisho vyao wanapata haviko tayari. Wanarudi kule mara nyingi mpaka wanachoka. Ukienda kwa ofisi nyingi za DC utapata vitambulisho vingi vinatapakaa kila mahali. Je, kuna mpango gani kuhakikisha kwamba mtu akituma maombi ya kupata kitambulisho anapata kitambulisho chake?

Bw. Naibu Spika, tulipata dawa yake. Machifu wakishirikiana na manaibu wao wanaweza kuwafikia wananchi kwa njia iliyo bora na rahisi zaidi.

Mhe. Leshomo, swali la mwisho!

Bw. Naibu Spika, inaonekana kwamba kuna shida katika shughuli za kuwasajili watu wetu ili wapate vitambulisho. Ningeomba Waziri Msaidizi ajaribu kuzipatia nguvu idara ambazo ziko kwa wilaya ili kila mtu apate kitambulisho. Naibu Waziri angetueleza vile tunaweza kupata idara ambayo ni mobile ambayo inaweza kuzunguka katika kila kata ili kuwasajili watu. Tukiuliza Swali na mambo hayo hayatekelezwi, haisaidii. Ningeomba Idara ya Usajili wa Watu iimarishwe. Hii ni kwa sababu utapata mtoto anashtakiwa kwa kukosa kitambulisho. Je, ni nini itaonyesha kuwa yeye ni Mkenya kama hana kitambulisho? Kwa hivyo Idara ya Usajili wa Watu ingefanya juhudi zaidi kuhakikisha kuwa Wakenya wote wanapata vitambulisho. Pia tuwe na ofisi ambazo ni mobile . Pia, itachangia katika kuimarisha hali ya usalama.

Bw. Naibu Spika, vile alivyosema mhe. Mbunge, hiyo ndio njia tunafuata ya mobile . Kwa hivyo, tunangojea tu. Nyinyi mna wajibu kama Wabunge kutusaidia tupate rasilimali zaidi ili tununue magari na mafuta. Nakubaliana na mhe. Mbunge na tutaenda mobile.

Next Question, hon. Anyanga!

asked the Minister for Energy:- (a) whether he could provide a list of project undertaken by the Rural Electrification Authority within Nyatike Constituency for the last three years; and, (b) when the Government will commission the rural electrification projects in Nyatike.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to reply. First of all, allow me to make a clarification that the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) has been involved in the implementation of rural electrification projects in the last two years only. Within that period, REA has implemented the following projects in Nyatike Constituency:- 1. Luanda Tuk Market, Kibis Secondary School, Ndhiwa Market, Duluma Market. 2. Angigo, Kabutu, Ochuma, Kange, Onditi, Olasi, Apilo and Kuokero markets.

Could the Assistant Minister assure this House that the incomplete projects in Nyatike will be completed by September, 2010?

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. The Assistant Minister has provided a list of projects that are being implemented in Nyatike. Could he confirm to this House which ones, out of the ones he has mentioned, have been fully completed?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, of the five projects, Onindo Ooko Borehole has been completed and commissioned. Ingira, Riak and Wabura markets have been completed but not commissioned. Angigo, Kabutu, Ochuma, Kange, Onditi, Olasi, Apilo and Kuokero markets have been completed and will be commissioned by September, 2010. Nyamanga Beach Project has been completed and will be commissioned by September, 2010. Luanda Market and Kibis Secondary School, Ndhiwa Market and Duluma markets are in progress and will be completed by December, this year.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Could the Assistant Minister tell the House what arrangements REA has to ensure that what they are told is what is on the ground, especially with regard to completion? For example, we have projects in my constituency--- In Lokhome area, Lokhome Primary School was left out. Nyasi and Lukosi primary schools were also left out. On the Gituamba projects, there were schools like Kipsagam and Mengo primary schools that were left out. What arrangements do you have to visit the ground and ensure that all the projects are completed?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are some concerns that projects are taking a long time to be completed and once they are completed, they are not energized on time. Those concerns are there and we, in the Ministry, have put in place a process where we sent people to go and actually check whether they have been completed.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, many REA projects are claimed to be complete and yet, it takes so long for the projects to be commissioned and supplied with power. What is the Assistant Minister doing to ensure that immediately REA completes the construction, KPLC takes over and supplies the power to enable the people to enjoy the services which have been paid for by the Government?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, yes, there are delays in interface between KPLC and REA. Sometimes, there is a delay in the supply of materials. It takes time to procure the transformers. We are now holding discussions with both companies to make sure that there is a proper interface and no time will lapse between the two phases.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Considering that REA electrification system is targeting places like boreholes, shopping centers, secondary schools and health facilities, what is the Assistant Minister doing to ensure that the area through which the power is supplied benefits the locals, individual homes and various other interested parties?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the projects that are implemented by REA cover the markets completely. They do not target schools and boreholes only. I am aware of places where connections are done as and when it is necessary.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, how does REA ensure that the contractors who are sent to do the jobs are competent enough and that the materials that are used during the job are for the right project?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, REA carries out prequalification procedures. They then get contractors on labour and transport basis. The materials are procured by REA itself. With regard to contractors who do not do a good job, the contract terms are applied. So, where there is impropriety, we investigate. However, generally, contractors who are chosen are able to do their jobs unless the hon. Member has some contrary information.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, could the Assistant Minister clarify the following:- Between REA and KPLC, who is supposed to be paid for connections so that power can be supplied?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, KPLC is supposed to be paid. The maintenance of the works is done by KPLC. Therefore, connections to consumers are done by KPLC.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Could the Assistant Minister assure this House today that the incomplete projects in Nyatike Constituency will be finalized before the commissioning date which will be in mid September, 2010?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, most obliged!

Question No.242 by hon. John Mututho and Question No.342 by hon. John Pesa are both deferred to Wednesday afternoon next week. Today is the Supply Day and if you look at your Order Paper, you will see that it reads: Not later than 3.30 pm. So, let us move on to the next Order!

Order, hon. Members! We will not be taking any Statements today apart from hon. Imanyara who wants to seek a Ministerial Statement. The other Statements are all deferred to tomorrow. Hon. Imanyara, are you prepared to seek your Statement? If you can take one minute, it will be good.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I can do that tomorrow because the Minister for Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs is not here.

That is very good. Fair enough. All Statements are deferred to tomorrow. Next Order!

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is my pleasure to move my Ministry’s budget Vote R31 and D31. However, before I present to this honourable House my Ministry’s budget, I wish to reiterate the Government’s commitment to the full implementation of the current policy framework governing our education sector whose goal is to provide equal opportunities for education for all children and other learners. In this regard, the Government has set aside funds to cushion the vulnerable groups in ASAL areas and other pockets of poverty, while paying special attention to learners with special needs.

On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Could the Minister start by moving the Motion?

Mr. Minister, move the Motion you initiate. The Order Paper is very clear.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that the Speaker do now leave the Chair. Thank you for that reminder. I thought I had done so. In this regard, therefore, the Government has set aside funds to cushion the vulnerable groups in ASAL areas and other pockets of poverty while paying special attention to learners with special needs. My Ministry continues to implement the first Medium-Term Plan of Vision 2030 which is the foundation for the National Development Strategy that links national policies, specific programmes and projects. Under the Vision 2030, the critical role that education is expected to play as an enabler in the development of quality human capital is well documented. My Ministry’s Budget is, therefore, cast having in mind the obligation of the Government, under the Vision 2030.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as a way of stimulating growth in the national economy, my Ministry was allocated an amount of Kshs8,428,000,000 in the last Financial Year 2009/2010 specifically to support infrastructure development in our schools as well as planting of seedlings for use by the schools and the surrounding communities. I am happy to report that my Ministry was able to surmount the many challenges experienced early in the financial year and eventually, we were able to disburse a total sum of Kshs8,382,000,000. This means that only an amount of Kshs45.7 million was not utilized by the end of the financial year. It is my hope that the unutilized balance for the Economic Stimulus will be re-voted to my Ministry to ensure that the targeted beneficiaries get their share to implement the intended programmes.

In the current Financial Year 2010/201, my Ministry has been allocated a total of Kshs4,058,000,000 for the following activities under the Economic Recovery and Poverty Alleviation Programme:- Contract teachers – Kshs2,013,000,000; infrastructure improvement in national schools – Kshs750 million; purchase of computers in each constituency – Kshs980 million and planting of seedlings in primary schools – Kshs315 million, making a total of Kshs4,058,000,000. With regard to employment of teachers, I am happy to inform the hon. Members that the misunderstanding which prevented the Ministry from utilizing funds allocated for hiring of contract teachers during the last financial year, has now been sorted out. I wish, therefore, to assure this House that my Ministry will move with speed and, indeed, we have moved with speed and have made all the necessary advertisements and all the officers were fully briefed yesterday. This programme will move into full gear and implementation with expectation that by the start of the third term, the teachers will be in the classrooms. This, therefore, entails that the 66 teachers for primary schools and 20 teachers for secondary schools will be available for every constituency. Through this exercise, we hope to recruit a total of 18,060 to alleviate the current shortage, thereby enhancing learning standards in schools. The employment of these contract teachers will, however, not adequately address the big teachers’ shortage in our schools, which currently stands at 66,000. I, therefore, call upon the Treasury to consider availing more funds to my Ministry for employment of permanent teachers as provided for under Vision 2030. With regard to the infrastructure development of our national schools, purchase of computers and planting of seedlings in our schools, I wish to inform this House that my Ministry has been working closely with the Treasury to ensure that adequate preparations are made in targeted schools to enable us to release the funds as early as possible. I am also happy to inform the Members that my Ministry is working closely with the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources with a view to starting a more robust sustainable approach to environmental management in our schools. The two Ministries, together with other collaborating Ministries, will shortly be making an announcement on the details of this collaboration. For a long time, our Adult Education Programme has been constrained by the low numbers of full time teachers. The sub-sector has also continued to suffer a negative perception held by many Kenyan adults, some of whom should enroll for adult education. The Adult Education Programme has been operating with only 1,549 full-time adult teachers. The situation has now improved since the beginning of this financial year when the Ministry employed a total of 880 full-time adult education teachers, who have already been posted to all parts of the country. Apart from the adult education teachers, my Ministry has also recruited a total of 1,780 junior officers to improve services, particularly in the newly created districts bringing the total number of newly created officers to 2,588. Our education system can only be assured of retaining its high standards if the curriculum being in use in schools is of the highest standards. In this regard, my Ministry has deliberately embarked on a programme of strengthening the Kenya Institute of Education (KIE) with a view to enhancing its capacity to produce quality curriculum and curriculum support materials. Already, the KIE is using electronic curriculum support materials through recently launched education channel, which means that we can access all learners in the country whether in public or private institutions. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to thank the Treasury for increasing the funding for the Free Primary Education and the Free Day Secondary Education programmes by an amount of Kshs2 billion each. This clearly underscores the Government’s commitment on two important programmes. The enrolment in public primary schools currently stands at 8.4 million pupils while that of secondary schools stands at 1.5 million students. The current budgetary provisions under these important programmes are, however, not adequate to meet the allocations per student. My Ministry is, therefore, consulting with the Treasury with a view to addressing this shortfall. Hon. Members will recall that when moving my Ministry’s Budget in this House for the last financial year, I had outlined the preparations we had made in readiness for the mainstreaming of the early childhood education into basic education. As you are aware, this programme was supposed to have been rolled out by January, 2010, but my Ministry could not be able to do this due to lack of budgetary provisions in last years’ Budget. I am sorry to report that our proposal for funding of this programme has, once again, not been considered. Therefore, this remains an issue that we want to raise with the Treasury if we have to acquire and attain education for all by 2015. I will now give the details of the budgetary allocations as given in this financial year. My Ministry has been allocated a total of Kshs131,479,760,000 gross in the Recurrent Vote and a sum of Kshs9,510,664,893 gross in the Development Vote. The current Estimates reflect an additional Kshs14,195,092,100 from the last year’s budgetary allocation of Kshs117,284,667,900, while the Development Budget reflects a decrease of Kshs2,307,177,821 compared to last year’s allocation of Kshs11,817,842,714. The following are the highlights of the major programmes in my Ministry’s Budget where the above resources will be applied. In the Recurrent Expenditure, Vote R31, a sum of Kshs131,479,760,000 is distributed under the following items. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Sub-vote 310, General Administration and Planning, with a sum of Kshs101,287,205,378, will cater for the Ministry’s administrative costs, including teachers’ salaries. Under this Sub-toe, I will require a total of Kshs101,287,205,378 distributed under the following Heads:-

Head 730, Development Planning Services, Kshs89,825,635. This is essentially running costs for the Ministry’s Central Planning Unit, which includes strengthening the Education Management Information System (EMIS) framework to support timely, consistent and accurate data for planning and decision making.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in addition, an amount of Kshs14 million under the Schools Mapping Sub-Head will go towards the School Mapping Project, which will involve analysis of the already compiled data and development of District Atlases, while an amount of Kshs4.7 million will be utilised for monitoring of projects.

The provision under Sub-Head 834, Headquarters Administrative Services, with a sum of Kshs549,496,576, is to cater for salaries and operational expenses at the Headquarters und the departments.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Head 838 provides for Kenya National Commission for UNESCO, Kenya’s Representative to UNESCO, Paris, and Commonwealth Education Office in London. All these will require Kshs171,625,393 for administrative costs and running of their services.

Head 839, Kenya National Examinations Council, has an allocation of 2,800,000,000. Out of the budget captured under this Head, an amount of Kshs2,500,000,000, will be collected by the Kenya National Examinations Council from examination fees, while the balance of Kshs300 million will be grants to the institution to supplement the examination fees collected.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Head 841, Teachers Service Commission, has been allocated a sum of Kshs94,859,213,725. This amount will service both the Teachers Service Commission Secretariat and the payment of teachers’ salaries. During the current financial year, the Government will spend Kshs94,560,000,000 on teachers’ salaries and on TSC secretariat salaries. This includes Kshs6.6 billion earmarked for the second phase of the teachers’ salary award negotiated in the year 2008. A further sum of Kshs303 million will be used to finance the operations and maintenance expenses of the Teachers Service Commission Secretariat. Under Head 845, School Audit Unit, Kshs43,129,559 is provided for this unit, which is charged with the responsibility of auditing all public schools and public tertiary training institutions to ensure proper utilisation of the funds. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, under Heads 837 and 862, Provincial and District Education Services, a total sum of Kshs2,099,529,679 has been allocated under Sub-Head 860 for the provincial and district services. Head 863, Kenya Institute of Education, is allocated Kshs674,384,810. This will be used to finance an additional cost of Kshs80 million to be able to purchase the equipment for the School Broadcasting Services. Basic education will get a chunk of Kshs11,364,880,524, and Post-Primary Schools will get Kshs110 billion to finance free primary education and free day tuition institutions. For special secondary schools like Thika School for the Blind, Joy Town School, Physically Challenged and Handicapped, Gucha, and Joyland, Mombasa, will be allocated Kshs100 million. Early childhood development centres got Kshs394,378,304. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Directorate of Basic Education has been allocated Kshs9,390,026,148 for the services of Free Primary Education. The School Feeding Programme will attract Kshs611,993,531. Primary Teacher Training Colleges will be allocated Kshs197,106,008 for their services. Special primary schools have been allocated Kshs210 million to be able to cater for their services. The Kenya Institute of Special Education has been allocated Kshs341,376,465, out of which Kshs91,376,465 will be given as grants from the Government to run some of these institutions, the rest being Appropriations-In-Aid (A-In-A). Under Sub-Vote 312, Quality Assurance Standards, a sum of Kshs241,070,000 will be given for servicing this aspect of education. Under Secondary and Tertiary education, free day tuition has been allocated Kshs17,357,710,466. The Directorate of Policy Planning has been allocated Kshs135,977,000. In all, the Department of Adult Education gets Kshs1,092,915,225. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, under the Development Expenditure, we require a total Kshs9,510,664,593. Under this heading, there will be administrative costs, Kshs4 billion; planning, Kshs4 billion; contract Teachers, Kshs2 billion; national schools upgrading, Kshs750 million. We have decided to upgrade all the national schools, which have been provided for in the Estimates. Tree nurseries and seedlings, 315 million, and purchase of computers for schools, Kshs980 million. The Kenya National Examinations Council will be given a subsidy of Kshs130 million, with the rest of its requirement being raised as A-In-A through charging of examination fees. The Teachers Service Commission has been allocated Kshs30 million to complete its headquarters. Therefore, what remains is for District Education Services, Kshs104,400,000. The Kenya Institute of Education has been allocated Kshs70 million to be able to improve the education channel. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are getting support from our development partners as follows: The World Food Programme, Kshs1,045,509,038; United Nations Children Education Fund (UNCEF), Kshs645,000,827; The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Kshs136 million; Government of Kenya Infrastructure Development, Kshs302,407,352. Together with all this, we will be able to service the various programmes under the development agenda. We have made a provision of Kshs193 million for secondary and tertiary education for the provision of science laboratories under various programmes, including SMASSE and the Counter Fund in respect of Kebabii Secondary School. Mangu and Maseno High Schools have been given a special programme for rehabilitation with an extra strength of Kshs176 million and others, Kshs5.6 million. In conclusion, we have an amount of Kshs20 million to cater for the refurbishment of Kakamega, Ahero, Murathagari, Isinya and Kitui Multi-purpose Training Centres. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to thank the hon. Members for their continued support to the education sector, particularly in the development and improvement of the infrastructure in our schools. I encourage them to continue supporting us in our endeavour to increase the capacity of our institutions to enrol more students, and thereby improve our transition rates from the primary school level to the secondary school level. I beg to move, and ask hon. Kajwang to second this Motion.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to second.

After such an eloquent and able presentation, I really do not want to say more. I would like to say that Parliament should know that as much as we are doing very well as the Ministry of Education, there are a few gaps that we will need Treasury to close, especially on hiring of Early Childhood Education Teachers so that our education starts at early childhood, maybe, with a little more support in hiring of more teachers for adult education.

With those few remarks, I second.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker Sir, thank you for this opportunity to support this Motion for the approval of the Budget of the Ministry of Education. From the outset, I want to confirm to the House that the Minister together with the senior officers from the Ministry did appear before the Committee on Education, Research and Technology for purposes of interrogating the Budget together. This is a very important Ministry for the future of this country. For Vision 2030, we as a Government must focus mainly on the issue touching on education. As the saying goes, if you want to help somebody for once, then give that person fish but if you want to help that person for a lifetime, then teach him how to fish. If we want to develop like any other developed country that we can think of today, we must always invest heavily in education. Ask the Israelis why they are where they are today and they will whisper to you that it is education. Ask South Korea and they will tell you that it is education that has taken them where they are. Ask the Japanese and they will tell you that it is through the development of the human person that they have been able to develop. As a country, we should not, at this time cry foul that we do not have minerals because we have the human capacity that we can develop. If we do that we will be able to move this country to greater heights.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to start by appreciating the Budget of the Ministry of Education by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance. Kshs140 billion is not something small for us as a country. We note with appreciation as a Committee that this was up from the previous years by over Kshs14 billion. We would like to appreciate that particular gesture to the Ministry. Our main concern is on what the Ministry requested for vis-à-vis what they got. What the Ministry received was short by Kshs6 billion. So, if the Ministry is expected to implement each and every item that they wanted to implement this year then they should have been given an extra Kshs6 billion. That means, therefore, that there is need for re-organization to ensure that the Ministry still does achieve what was intended to be achieved. As a Committee, we looked at very many areas but we narrowed to one specific issue that must be addressed by the country. That is, the shortfall of the teaching staff. As a country we are being reminded, year in, year out, that we have a shortfall of 65,000 teachers. Taking the teachers’ sentiments sometimes back, if this issue is not addressed, then by the end of the coming year, we shall be talking of over 75,000. As a committee, we took this very seriously and when we interrogated the Budget Policy Statement, we did indicate that the Ministry should prioritize the employment of teachers this financial year. I want to appreciate the efforts put in place by the Minister for Education through a letter that was tabled before the Committee requesting Treasury to consider giving the Ministry more resources so that it could be able to employ teachers. In this Budget, that was not forthcoming. What was set aside - which as a Committee we feel is an embarrassment to the Ministry, after adding Kshs14 billion - is only Kshs2 billion for teachers.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we would like to appreciate what the Ministry has done with regard to the recruitment of teachers. It was the proposal from the Committee that in whatever circumstances, whether it is on permanent, contract or temporary terms, we insisted that for purposes of accountability, the employment of teachers must be done by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). I want to appreciate that that has already been done. Our appeal to the Minister is to ensure that all the procedures are followed so that no Kenyan will cry foul that he or she applied, qualified but did not get employed.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also noted that the Ministry had requested for Kshs3.2 billion for the said purpose but they were only given Kshs2 billion. We also realized that in the last financial year, Kshs1.6 billion had been set aside for the employment of the so called intern teachers. That was forthcoming. It was and still is the feeling of the Committee that that money should have been rolled out this year so that every year something is done for the teachers. What has come out is that nothing was done in the last financial year as far as the employment of teachers is concerned. This year they are about 18,000 being employed on a contract of three years. We are raising a serious warning that this is just but a postponement of a problem because in the following years, if you employ again another 18,000, in three years time, how will you absorb them? That is a question that must be captured and be addressed so that the commitment given to the teachers is actually qualified. It is still the belief of the Committee on Education, Research and Technology and those who love and believe in education that it is still possible for the Government to employ teachers on a permanent basis. I want to call upon hon. Members and the leadership of the country that as we approach next year, let us openly and sincerely address the issue of teachers so that we do not just talk of a very large Budget but at the end of it you find children in class but no teachers.

I have always raised this issue; that some of us did not learn in classrooms. We learnt under trees and the person who made us what we are is a teacher who taught us under the trees. That is how important a teacher is. Other issues that we have raised regard the Quality Assurance Standards Officers. I want to applaud that Kshs241 million has been set aside for the assurance of quality in our schools. We would like the Ministry to ensure that we are able to account for the money by the end of the year and that we are able to visit schools and actually find teachers teaching because what is happening in some parts of the country is that teachers go there for a brief moment and they do not fully prepare for the same. So, the Quality Assurance Standards Officers across the country would ensure that they utilize that money for the real purpose that we are requesting this House to approve.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister has indicated that we have Kshs926 million set aside for the upgrading and rehabilitation of facilities in our national schools. As a committee, we want to state here that this is a very positive move given that in most of our national schools, the buildings and structures are of stone age. We want to believe, as a Committee that this money will be fully utilized for the benefit of all the national schools. We want to urge the Minister that the same gesture should be extended to other schools as we progress.

A very important programme was started last year under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP). There was Kshs30 million for a school in each constituency. That programme was very popular and we note that gesture with appreciation. Most constituencies considered one gender, either a boys’ school or a girl’s school. Such constituencies should have expected a similar amount so that the other gender is addressed. It is important for the future of this nation that such kind of an amount is still considered for the same. On the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Programme, I would not want to add more but to indicate that this is a very important level of the development of the human person. We noted with concern that the Ministry requested for Kshs6 billion and it was given only Kshs394 million. We would have expected last year that all the ECD teachers should have been absorbed by the Government. We hope this is going to be considered in the next phase. On the issue of free primary education, free secondary education and the bursaries, we would like to remind the Ministry - and it is a really serious recommendation from the Committee - that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and the Minister for education sit together and ensure that the money for schools is released on time. This has been a serious case across the country. We would like to applaud the ICT Programme that has just been rolled out. We understand that through this budget, each constituency is going to get at least 300 computers. We would like to request the Minister to expedite rolling out this programme for the students to benefit in time. Very importantly is what I indicated earlier on; the quality of education. We must accept as leaders of this nation that the quality is going down and there is urgent need for us to address the issues surrounding the same. We, therefore, recommend as a Committee for a serious stakeholders’ meeting or conference to look into these issues; digest them, make recommendations and be able to move this country forward. I want to agree with the Minister’s proposal that a sum as indicated be approved for the Ministry. I beg to support.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to support this Vote. From the outset, I want to talk about a number of challenges that are key in this Ministry. Whether we like it or not, whether we have introduced free primary education or not, whether we have subsidized secondary school education or not, our education system remains the most unequal and it is becoming more unequal with time. So, really, we have to address this challenge because of the opportunities that go with the ability to buy expensive education, which is so much the case now. Very few of our own children from peasant and other backgrounds that are not so advantaged are able to make it through the system and to serious educational programmes even under the universities. We, therefore, need to make public schools more attractive because our public primary schools are not attractive even to the teachers who teach in them. This is why their own children are not enrolled in those schools that they are head teachers of, but in academies. One way of improving standards in public schools is what the Minister has been doing; putting in resources for teacher recruitment, text books, quality assurance and so on. But I think one other way is by making it very clear that you can come from public schools and end up in top schools that we are calling national schools and centres of excellence. Therefore, that policy of proportionate admission to the best schools on the basis of candidates from public and private schools needs to be revisited. I have always said if it could be considered during the days of KANU, I think for us who are much more believers in equity should be the first ones to want to implement it so that we give that hope to those children from those poor public schools. On Secondary schools, we have to ask questions about whether or not we can manage to keep pace with the current rate of expansion of secondary schools, and especially day schools. Every year, we are saying we have a shortage of teachers. But how are teachers going to be enough if every year, Members of Parliament and communities are opening a new secondary school all the time? How is that going to be possible? I think it is time we said; let us consolidate and strengthen the secondary schools that we have already opened. Once those are strong enough, I think we need a break and say that for the next four years, no more new secondary schools, let us support those we have with enough teachers and facilities so that they can compete. Otherwise, it is going to be a problem for the next few years. I hope also we do more to support expansion of private secondary schools. If we have so many private academies at the primary school level, what is to prevent us from encouraging those children who come from those kinds of institutions who can afford a private secondary school education to also follow that line and all the way to the university? What we are finding now is that even our own public universities have become the biggest private universities with that parallel degree programme. So if you can afford expensive primary school education, why can we not have another similar channel at the secondary school level for those who can afford to pay for that at Kabarak, Sunshine and many other private secondary schools that we have? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, now we have a new constitution and we are thinking more national. Education is very well placed to support nationalism in this country. Therefore, we must go back and ask questions about the policy of national admissions to secondary schools. We have centres of excellence and now we have counties. Why do we not have centres of excellence based around districts? I agree with those who say that we need to have another one in every district so that it is not a boys or girls school but we have at least schools that we call national at the county level. If we had one top boys school and one top girls school at every county, out of about 50 counties, we would have 100 top schools which can be national schools. So I disagree that we have to put money in the already existing national schools when we should be building more national schools to be able to recruit students from all over the country so that we release the pressure from the 20 national secondary schools that have been concentrated in certain parts of this country. I think it is high time that Kshs 1 billion shillings should be going to creating new national schools in our counties so that students are taken nationally. One way of also releasing that pressure is; once we have those national schools, a student can be admitted to a national school in Marsabit, Meru or Mombasa. If they refuse, then their parents can take them to a private secondary school. But that is one way of forcing national unity through admission. I would like to also say that this relates to teachers. It is okay for us to recruit teachers locally. There is a quota because we want to have teacher representation across the whole country. But I do not see what is wrong with recruiting locally as we are doing now but sending those teachers to the TSC and asking the TSC to deploy them nationally. So if you are recruited from Meru, you should be posted to another county. I beg to support.

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to support. I am in agreement with the hon. Dr. Mwiria. He actually picked words off my mouth because, for me, I would want us to focus our money on the issue of inequality through policies that the Ministry furthers, through resource allocation and through issues of gender discrimination. I have raised this in the House before. One of the policies that I am really against is the issue of language; the medium of instruction in schools especially for rural and peri-urban schools. We teach our children in local languages and expect them to sit and undertake examinations competitively with their counterparts who have been dancing and singing in English since birth. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we want to realize Vision 2030, we must invest in people and, particularly, our women. God placed our Minister at this place at such a time like this for a purpose. This is because Nyanza had been the cradle of intellectualism in this country. The situation of education in Nyanza is, however, becoming deplorable. This is especially the education of girls. It is embarrassing and a shame. I would want to encourage us to invest money and come up with a special law on education of girls in Nyanza, whether Kisii Nyanza, Kuria Nyanza, Suba Nyanza or Luo Nyanza. Recently, I was asked for girls from Nyanza for certain positions nationally and all the names I had had grade D-Plus or D-Minus. If you look at the national results from Nyanza, I think there were hardly two girls who had grade A in the entire province. This is something that does not require just a plan. We must come up with a law and focus on it. Under the new Constitution, we now have opportunity to look into marginalized areas. We must equalize through the Equalization Fund. One of the special areas of focus must be the girls in Nyanza. With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I stand to support Vote 31 for the Ministry of Education. On the outset, I want to commend the Minister and his team. Recently they went to northern Kenya. They went to every district and talked to all the stakeholders in education. I want to ask other Ministers in the Grand Coalition Government to follow suit. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think in education we must address key issues like access to education, equity, quality of education and relevance of education. I want to borrow from what is happening in northern Kenya. All these issues are major factors. Under the Nomadic Education Commission that is in the pipeline, we expect the Minister for Education and his team to analyse the social, cultural, political and economic factors driving educational marginalization in North Eastern Province. We expect the Minister and his team to conduct a stastical analysis of the education situation in Northern Kenya. It is with this in mind that 47 years down the line, given factors in northern Kenya that impact negatively on education, the standards are very pathetic and worrying. We need Parliament to address that. Take for example, 33.2 per cent of the population in North Eastern Province having enrolled in schools against the national figure of 76 per cent. Central Province has an enrolment rate of 92 per cent in schools. Worse still, only three per cent of the people in North Eastern Province have attained secondary education. More worrying are the statistics for women, which is 0.5 per cent. When you compare these figures with other regions and national figures, then you ask yourself why it should be the case, 47 years down the line, while there was a Government and the Ministry of Education. What went wrong? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if I come to my own constituency, the figures are very worrying. I gave the Minister the figures when he was in my constituency. The gross enrolment rate in Dujis is barely 30 per cent. This is a very worrying figure. The official enrolment in primary schools by pupils of school-going age of six years and above is very low in my constituency. It is about 25 per cent. When we go to retention rate, in Garissa District, the retention in primary schools stands at 75 per cent for boys and 49 per cent for girls. The transition rate is even worse in my constituency; it is 60 per cent for boys and 42 per cent for girls. These are figures for transition from primary to secondary schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when the Minister and his team are looking at the forthcoming Nomadic Education Policy, they should address these issues. That is why the people of northern Kenya, in their wisdom, overwhelmingly voted for the new Constitution. About 98 per cent voted for the document. They felt that it was time they should manage their key sectors. They felt it is time that their own counties can manage and solve the problems the education sector is facing. Therefore, for the North Eastern Province to vote 98 per for the Constitution, it was not by default. It was on purpose and it was as a result of 47 years of marginalization by the Government. We must access the intervention that the Ministry of Education has targeted in reducing the marginalization of northern Kenya in education. Even after a new Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands had been put in place by the Grand Coalition Government, three years down the line, the education indicators--- These are the same indicators for northern Kenya you will find in health, infrastructure and all sectors of the socio-economic set up of this country. I think it is high time that Prof. Ongeri and his team felt that North Eastern Province needs special attention. North Eastern Province needs a marshal plan in terms of education. They should also feel that the Nomadic Education Commission is the right vehicle and forum. I urge my colleagues that when that Motion of the Commission comes before the House, we will count on those of us who are from the pastoral communities and Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASAL) to reduce the period and say we are part and parcel of Kenya. With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I would also like to thank the Minister for giving us the outline of how the money is going to be spent this financial year. This is a very important Ministry and I am sure it touches all of us almost personally. I want to thank the Ministry for all the work that they have been doing down in our villages. We have been able to have infrastructure development as a result of the free primary education and the Kenya School Equipment Scheme (KESES). Please, continue with the programmes. There are quite a few schools which still have not been completed. We do not want to see buildings in schools which have not been completed. Mr. Minister, I would request that you re-start the programme on infrastructure development. I would also like to thank the Minister for resolving the issue of contracts for teachers. I thank you that you have finally agreed to give them contracts pending employment. From last year we have been pulling in all directions, I am glad that finally we are going to have teachers in schools by third term as you have promised. We will hold you to that. Unfortunately, we are disappointed with the Early Childhood Development (ECD) programme. That is such a sensitive time of a child’s development. The fact that you have not thought that this deserves priority is quite disappointing. If we are going to mould the child from when they are young, priority should be given to making sure that we absorb the ECD teachers into our system so that they deliver in schools. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank the Minister for employing teachers for adult education. This is another area that is very important for those who never managed to go through the education system when they were younger. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to say very clearly that, despite the very heavy investment that we are putting in the education sector, we are still unsure about the quality of education that our children are getting. We must be able to measure the returns that we are getting from the huge amounts that are invested in that sector. A research that was carried out recently has shown that there are very high levels of illiteracy among our students; I think it was carried out among pupils in Standard II up to Standard IV. What do we have to say about that, given the resources that we have invested? We must go back and assess the children when they are in schools. There are 8 million primary school students and 1.5 million secondary school students. Even as we clamor for more teachers in our schools, what do they do when they finally get to those schools? I want to call for more supervision in the school system; that everybody begins to take his or her responsibilities seriously, right from the principals, quality assurance staff and teachers. That way, we will be able to take keen interest in what is happening once we have the students in the schools. We do not want it to be only about the numbers. We want quality work to be done. I want to laud the idea that was given with regard to the centres of excellence by Dr. Mwiria. If we are going to achieve national cohesion, we must start it from the school system. If we can have 100 or so modern centres of excellence, admitting students from across the country and teaching them the values of being together, I think this is one sector that can help us bring about national cohesion. So again, before I end, I want to say that we are doing a good job, but we can do even better. There is a lot that can assist us in this country. With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand here to support the Motion very strongly. I also want to appreciate the work done by the Minister for Education, my friend, Prof. Ongeri, and his staff. They are doing a marvelous job despite the challenges. Let me also appreciate the role that has been played by the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology and its very able Chairman because I think they have done a good job. There are very many issues to do with education, but I just want to touch on a few. First, there is the shortage of teachers. I am glad that, that is now being addressed. However, there is something that, in my view, is not going right. When the Ministry allocates the same number of teachers to all the constituencies--- The Ministry has allocated 66 teachers for primary schools in every constituency and 20 teachers for secondary schools. I cannot understand the logic and I hope the Minister is going to explain to us here. A constituency may have five secondary schools and fewer vacancies and then you give it 20 teachers, while another constituency will have many vacancies and many schools. In fact, some of the schools have only one teacher. Then you give them the same number of teachers. I have been unable to understand the logic and I hope they will explain to us why all the constituencies are being given an equal number of teachers and yet, the vacancies are not the same. I would have expected that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) would have a record of which school has what, and allocate those teachers based on need and not necessarily as per the constituency. Therefore, I feel that something is wrong! The other thing has to do with teachers training vacancies. As we speak, we have some districts or constituencies which have many people who qualify to attend teachers training colleges, but they cannot go. Those that already have more teachers than others take their students for training. So, in fact, we have areas with students who qualify to go to teachers training colleges but the people there do not get the opportunity to take their boys and girls to these colleges. Therefore, what happens is that they keep on getting teachers from other constituencies or districts which have over-trained. I think this is unfair and unless we correct these things, we cannot pretend to be doing things in an equitable manner and yet, we want this nation to be as cohesive as we want it to be. On the issue of ICT, some areas in this Republic are treated as if they are not part of Kenya. We have some areas where students or even teachers have never seen a computer. They do not know how a computer looks like and yet, they are in secondary schools. We have other secondary schools with hundreds of computers. We want this issue of ICT to be looked at carefully so that, all the schools are treated equally. On the issue of early childhood education, during the Ninth Parliament, we passed a policy on education. The basis of that policy paper was to ensure that the Government takes over education as early as pre-primary to enhance the quality of education and to ensure that parents are relieved of the burden of recruiting teachers when they have no resources. I heard the Minister say that he was sorry that, that has not taken off. I want to ask him that as he moves to the next phase, he should implement that without any further delay. Quality assurance is another issue. As we speak now, there are education officials who are supposed to go round inspecting schools, but they have no transport. In my own case, I know of a district education officer who uses matatus and boda bodas to go and inspect schools. Is that really what we want our education officers to go through? I think it is high time that the Ministry of Education provides the necessary tools - including transport - to our officers so that they can do a better job than they are doing now. Otherwise, they are doing a good job and they should be commended. With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me this chance to support this very important Motion. Prof. Ongeri, the Minister for Education, is somebody who means well for this country. He has had a lot of patience to even educate very many of us to the levels that we have reached. However, I feel that, probably, his hands are tied by some remote control in the sense that if you take into account what Mr. Musila has just mentioned on the recruitment of teachers, there is skewed distribution. There is something that is tying his hands. He is supposed to give 300 computers to every constituency. The constituencies are not of the same size. They do not have the same number of schools. They do not have the same number of students. I believe it is not the Minister’s intention. I believe there is somebody tying his hands. That person should agree to untie the Minister’s hands.

As the Minister spoke, I did not hear him mention something very critical at the moment. In the next year, the first graduates of the 8-4-4 free primary education will be going to Form I. I do not think we have enough classrooms to cater for those youngsters as they graduate to Form I. I believe the Ministry needs to come up with a rescue plan to ensure that we will have adequate classrooms and teachers for those new graduates of the free primary education who will be going to Form I next year.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I still sympathize with Prof. Ongeri because his Ministry is working very hard to ensure that adequate national resources are channeled towards education. But he is handicapped in one sense: The audit system at the user-end - the schools – is virtually non-existent. This is to the extent that it is not possible to actually say that all the money that is being channeled to the schools, which are the end users, is actually doing what it is channeled to do at that end. The auditing of schools, both primary and secondary schools, is still inadequate and we are not sure whether the money going there actually does what it is supposed to do. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is also an issue which I noticed in the Minister’s presentation. It appears as if the money that is spared for extra curricular activities in most of these schools is inadequate. We have just gone through the National Music Festival, and I am sure many hon. Members will agree with me here that they had appeals from so many schools for assistance to be able to take their youngsters to the music festival. This keeps on happening, be it sports or music festivals. Even when a toilet breaks down - In most of the areas where it rains a lot, toilets are always sinking - they do not seem to have money to even repair these things. I do believe that with a little bit of adjustment, they can ensure that our youngsters get wholesome education, which includes the extracurricular activities or co-curricular activities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the issue of Early Childhood Development (ECD), I believe that Prof. Ongeri, being a pediatrician, a specialist in child health, knows very well when it is best to start educating a child. Early childhood development is one of the areas. It beats me why nobody in the Ministry of Finance is listening to the hon. Minister when he asks for money to finance ECD. I think I am right to say that his hands are tied. Whoever is tying the Minister’s hands should untie them immediately, so that he can be more effective than he has been. So far, I must admit, he has been quite effective. I do believe that with the education system the way it is, and with devolution, I believe if the Minister puts his mind to it; it will work out very well for the Ministry of Education. With those few remarks, I wish to support.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute and support Vote 31 of the Ministry of Education. First of all, I would like to thank the Minister and his staff for the good work they are doing at the headquarters of the Ministry. At least, we can see many things that are now moving faster than previously. For instance, I have been able to preside over the issue of the board of governor’s nominations, and these days they are being approved very fast indeed. We can all see the success of the Free Primary Education (FPE) Programme in terms of enrolment. But enrolment alone is not enough. For us to get proper FPE, it must also be coupled with quality education. Quality education can only come by if we have enough teachers, just as my friends have mentioned. I am glad that, already, there is this advertisement to employ 18,000 primary school teachers and also secondary school teachers. I want to underscore what my friends have said, that this is not really the solution. We must move in terms of vacancies. We must address the issue of understaffing in the respective areas rather than treating everybody in a uniform manner, since we know that understaffing is not uniform. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we know that Kenya is a signatory to the UN Millennium Development Goals. Goal number two is on universal primary education. On this, we can confidently say that we are on the right track and thank the Ministry for this but let them sort out the issue of quality. There are funds which are meant for the FPE and also secondary education within the schools. This money is being misused. We would like the Ministry to strengthen the audit department at the district level. Without fear of contradiction, all I can say is that all the people who do the audits are corrupt. They go to audit schools and instead of giving a proper report, they just give a shoddy report. We would wish the Ministry to have a proper external audit of all the funds received in schools. We also have this budget for the Ministry of Education. We know they are limited in terms of funds, but I would wish to repeat here that without adequate teachers, even if we have all the children going to school, then what we are producing at the end of the day is a mind that is not competitive and will not be able to compete with anybody out there. I would really wish to underscore the fact that the Ministry should be able to properly have their Vote, and also the Treasury should give them adequate funds so that they can function. There are problems in areas where new districts have been created. My district of Igembe North is an example. We have a DEO but we do not have the other staff. So, you find that even in this employment of teachers, we are using staff from another district and this is a very big limitation. So, we would wish that as the Ministry posts the DEOs to the respective districts, they also post adequate staff to ensure that the Ministry’s district offices function properly. Lastly, I would like to comment on the co-curricular activities. As Dr. Eseli has mentioned, I also have been approached by all the schools in my area, saying that they have excelled and want to go to the national level, but they have no funds to take them to Kakamega. Two months ago, they excelled in sports but there was no money to take them to the national events. As the Ministry concentrates on the academic side, let us also have enough funds to ensure that all our children get the proper support in extra-curricular activities. As they say, just being a bookworm is not enough. You must also have the presence of mind and engage in sports. With those few remarks, I support.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me a chance to contribute to the debate on Vote 31 – Ministry of Education. From the outset, I want to take this opportunity to thank the Minister for Education and his staff for doing a good job in the Ministry. The Minister has been very industrious; he has been all over the country visiting all areas, even North Eastern Province, to ensure that education in this country is given to our children. In the same breath, allow me to thank the departmental committee on education for also doing a wonderful job in supplementing what the Ministry officials are doing. I want, from the word go, to say that education for our children is extremely important. There is nothing as important as education for our children. The only investment that we can give to our children is education. We must ensure that we give our children quality education. A country which cannot invest in its children is doomed. I, for one, want to urge this House and the nation to ensure that we take care of our education. We should go out of our way to ensure that we give enough money, so that the Ministry of Education runs well and that our children get the quality education that they deserve. We seem to be talking of primary and secondary and university education, but real education starts from ECD. If we do not have it right at this level then we have lost it. We must ensure that ECD is taken care of by the Ministry of Education. This House must provide money, because we cannot ask the Minister for Education to ensure that he has employed teachers for ECD if this House cannot give him the money that he requires. I want to suggest here and now that it is incumbent upon us, as a nation, to ensure that we have this right from the beginning. We must ensure that ECD is catered for. If we cannot do that, then we have lost. I want to say that we cannot start talking about performance if we cannot talk about the beginning. A good beginning will make a good ending. So, we must ensure that ECD is taken seriously. I want to urge the Minister for Education to ensure that ECD is taken care of.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is about time that we teach our children to be patriotic. I want to see the Ministry of Education coming up with policies where our children sing the National Anthem every morning, so that they have a sense of belonging to this nation called Kenya. I want to see us go to the old system where our children could learn anywhere in this country. They could be posted to Murang’a and Coast Province to study. In so doing, we will kill ethnicity. We do not want our children to start thinking that they are Kisiis, Luos or Kikuyus. We want them to think that they are Kenyans. That is extremely important for this nation, if we are going to avoid some of the tribal sentiments that we, the old generation, have.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, most of our schools are not managed well. I want to urge the Ministry of Education to come up with a system where they can conduct seminars for heads of our schools. Most of the schools which are not well managed have abysmal performance. So, we need to have our teachers, especially principals, go for seminars on how to manage financial and human resources. That way, we will have managers running our institutions because they are extremely important. I want to thank the Ministry for the ongoing teachers recruitment exercise. This was long overdue. Even as I speak about performance, if our schools do not have enough teachers, we cannot expect them to have good performance. In my constituency of Kitutu Masaba, there are secondary schools which have only one teacher. That is the headmaster.

With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support Vote 31, Ministry of Education.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me, first of all, congratulate the Minister and his team for a job well done. They are doing a commendable job despite many difficulties. Let me particularly commend the Minister for taking off and going to North Eastern Province for a whole week to see for himself what the situation is like in that province. I am told he is the only Minister after Taita Towett, who has visited that province since our Independence. Congratulations!

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, education is key to the future of our nation. Education should be adequately funded. We cannot say it is expensive because if you think it is expensive, let us try ignorance to see how expensive it is. Access to education for our children is important. However, access without proper infrastructure and quality of education, is also meaningless. After 2003, when the Free Primary Education was started, the level of enrolment has increased in many parts of the country, especially in North Eastern Province. But if we have no teachers or infrastructure, then we cannot see the benefits of that enrolment.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must take recruitment of teachers very seriously because without them, children alone cannot learn and classrooms alone cannot teach them. We thank the Ministry for the initiative to recruit more teachers. But I would like to pose the question that we need to be planning as we have these teachers on contracts. We must plan what to do after the period of three years. We may have pupils that we cannot absorp. The way it looks now, we may be told we are looking for low cost teachers. Because we cannot afford them, so we are going to get teachers who cost us low. I hope we are not compromising the quality of our education. We are dealing with the pressure of enrolment, so we need more teachers. As we recruit these teachers, we must put in place a mechanism for replacement in the near future.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, staffing of education officers is a serious matter. Many education offices are not properly staffed. Maybe, the District Education Officer (DEO) is alone. He has no deputy. We do not have people from the inspectorate or other departments of the Ministry. You cannot supervise teaching in schools if you are not properly staffed. So, it is important that as we look at staffing in classrooms, we look at the staffing levels at the DEOs office. We have accepted the statistics that we need one teacher for 45 students as the norm. I think, in some regions, we need to be careful. This is because areas are unique and we must look at them uniquely.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister talked about upgrading national schools. These schools are not all over the country. Now that we are going to a devolved system when we implement the new Constitution, we need to strengthen these schools in various regions of this country. Let us pick one in every region, so that we can make it a national school. These schools were there at Independence. It is important that other parts of the country also benefit from those schools.

The stimulus package that you have put in is also a very good idea. I think it must be something continuous because it should not be a one time thing. If you have made a school a centre of excellence now, we need to continue that. I think whereas you have requested from the Treasury to complete those projects, we need those projects to be continuous. Bursary allocation to the secondary schools is a nightmare. We are not getting that money. There is something wrong in the way we fund our secondary schools. I think the subsidy for tuition is well managed. We pay bursaries from the CDF, but students still bother their parents. I think there is a problem in the management of secondary schools, particularly, the free tuition subsidy. But the bursary that used to come has totally been discontinued. This year, the allocation was very little. However, the amount allocated must be something predictable and we must know what to expect every year for that.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I wish to again thank the Minister for the attention they are giving to ASAL areas and also for his recent visit to the North Eastern Province, and also for the launch of the policy on nomadic education. We would like them to hurry that up and put the Commission in place so that it can address all the serious issues that are facing North Eastern Province.

With those few remarks, I beg to support.

I need to give the Chair of the Budget Committee at least two minutes and then the rest of you, unless the Minister gives you some of his time, that is it!

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity.

I want to thank the Minister for Education for having done a good job, so far. I want to start by looking at the vision of the Ministry which is to have a globally competitive quality education, training and research for Kenya’s sustainable development. I would like to look at that mission against the background that Kenya is a signatory to the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and against the background that Kenya has just passed a new constitution; against another background that Kenya is pursuing Vision 2030, which education is one of the greatest pillars.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is very important that we pursue education in the vision of the Ministry, so as to achieve quality education for Kenyans. Looking at the Budget of the Ministry of education, there is an increase of Kshs11 billion which the Minister explained is on account of new salaries for teachers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in my understanding, learning should be the interaction between the teacher and the pupil. This is where the core function is and, therefore, where most expenditure should go to.

Sorry, Mr. Ogindo. Unless the Minister allows you, this is now his time.

Bwana Minister, please, give me two minutes.

It is okay.

Thank you, Sir. He is a kind Minister. That is why I had to give the compliments first. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is important that we look at the teacher to student ratio. This is very critical. According to the education policy, we should have one teacher in a class of 40 students. It is important that we pursue that. As we grapple with the shortage of teachers, I want to urge the Ministry to ensure that, as a matter of policy, the teachers whose budgetary provisions are there, and who unfortunately die or leave education, should be replaced instantly. I have a case in Rangwe where we have lost 27 teachers and they have not been replaced. That is being counted alongside the shortage and it aggravates the problem. The syllabus that we have today does not really encourage quality education that we envisage in the mission and vision of the Ministry. The books that we have today have been written in point form.

Conclude now!

As I conclude, I want the Ministry to encourage the culture of distributing and displaying how their budget is spent, at least, provincially so that we know how much is spent per student and per teacher. A lot of money is locked up at the headquarters which is spent at the close of the financial year. Last but not least, we want the field officers to be facilitated so that inspection can take place in schools. These people do not even have fuel. With those few remarks, I beg to support this Motion.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to sincerely thank the hon. Members for their exposition and very hearty felicitations and congratulations they have given my officers for work which I think they have done very well under very difficult circumstances. I want to record my thanks to the Departmental Committee on Education, Research and Technology. We had very fruitful discussions with them on a regular basis, addressing emerging issues in the area of education. One that clearly stands out here today and is a major concern for us is the question of ECD. You all know that under the Education for All Programme and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), we are supposed to be mainstreaming ECD into the primary education programme. At any rate, in the Sessional Paper No.1 of 2005 in the sector policy, it was envisaged that by January of this financial year, we should have been able to recruit the managers for the ECD, but we did not have money factored in the budget. When we made our presentation to the Treasury, we actually requested Kshs1.6 billion to be able to address that critical need that hon. Members have already pointed out. We were given close to Kshs225million which can hardly scratch on the surface. We have not stopped there. As a Ministry, we have engaged Treasury and brought out this clearly in a session with them. We pointed it out to them that this is an area of concern for us. If we have to achieve education for all by 2015, then we need to mainstream ECD in the main programme. The Treasury was understanding and favourable. I hope that with your support and comments from the Floor, we should be able to pressurize them to include it in the Supplementary Estimates so that these teachers can truly take their rightful place and streamline and pilot this programme to the future. On the question of school audit, I agree with you that it has been problematic. Somebody made a suggestion that we should be sending external auditors. Indeed, we have sent them to do fiduciary audit in about 3,000 schools. That way, we will be able to sample out what is happening with regard to audit in schools. We are already devolving a lot of resources at the school level. Therefore, the school management committees and the Boards of Governors need to be abreast with the resources available at that local level. The school audit teams also need to be abreast with resources now being devolved to that level. It is going to become even more critical when we embrace this new Constitution at the county level. We have already put everything in gear. I have already instructed my officers to work out the modalities on how we are going to generate a system that will cover everybody down the line. However, for now, we are doing a fiduciary audit in about 3,000 schools countrywide to be able to get a feel of what is happening and asses the level of the problem we are dealing with. On the question of capacity building for headteachers and the principals of our schools, yes, indeed, we have established the Kenya Education Staff Institute. Under the budget that I presented before you, they have been given a fairly reasonable amount of money. I launched the council last week. They are already creating capacity and training headteachers and principals in order to be able to cope with the situation. There is one area in which Parliament will participate fully; this is the fact that we now need to amend the Education Act and put it in line with the new Constitution. When that is done, one of the areas that we must address is the calibre of the school management committees and the period they are required to be in those schools. At the moment, the turnover is too high and they can hardly own responsibility in those schools and yet we are sending so many resources to these institutions. Therefore, it is an area that requires to be looked at. I agree with hon. Koech. Indeed, we shall have a stakeholders meeting because there is need now to look at the legal framework in order to align all the Acts of Parliament, the current and the future Bills, so that they are in harmony with the current Constitution. It is more the case now that we realize that we will now have educational programmes in the counties. It is an inevitable state that will not only require that we first of all assemble the facts, figures and policies and make them right, but also share that with the stakeholders so that we can refine and fine-tune the policy before it comes here either as a Sessional paper or a Bill for deliberation. There is the question of computers. With regard to the rationale for hiring 66 primary school teachers and 20 secondary school teachers for every constituency, you will appreciate that if we did not do that, the first problem would have arisen from this House. All of you were saying that you want equity. At the beginning we suggested that there be the greatest need. As of now, we know the statistics; we have the figures. Right now, the biggest deficit of teachers is in Nyanza Province. That is a fact. What hon. Millie Odhiambo is saying is correct. If we were to realign these teachers, the next story I would hear is that the Minister of Education comes from Nyanza Province and so he has taken everybody to that province. We should be able to target this kind of deficit in the next round. The biggest deficit is in Nyanza Province followed by Rift Valley Province, Central Province and Eastern Province, in that order. Therefore, we really, of necessity, need to address this issue. But let me ask the hon. Members to take comfort in the fact that if a particular given area cannot absorb the 66 teachers in the primary schools and 20 teachers in secondary schools, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), being a central employer, will be able to allocate those chances to the respective areas where there is need, like hon. Musila raised that issue initially.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I just want to thank the House. We are together in this game and will move together. We intend to make Kenya the education hub of Africa and the world.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir.

Hon. Minister for Public Health and Sanitation, you will move that Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair to enable you to initiate debate on your Ministry.

You may proceed now!

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair to enable me to initiate debate on Vote 49 – Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, for the Financial Year 2010/2011.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me begin my presentation by acknowledging the very informative, inter-active and insightful deliberations that my Ministry has continued to have with the Parliamentary Committee on Health. The Chairman of the Committee and his team has been exceptionally resourceful, for which I am personally very grateful. In the same breath, let me also acknowledge the work that my officers and the Assistant Minister have put in under the very able and selfless leadership of the Permanent Secretary, Mr. Mark Bor.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to submit the expenditure estimates of the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation for the Financial Year 2010/2011. Public health is about managing threats to the health of a community and paying special attention to the social context of disease and health. The goal of public health is to improve lives by focusing on preventive or treatment of diseases, surveillance of cases and promotion of healthy behaviour.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the mandate of the Ministry as defined by the Government in the Presidential Circular No.1 of 2008 covers the following functions: Public Health and Sanitation Policy, preventive and promotive health services, community health services, health education, reproductive health, food quality and hygiene, health inspection and other public health services, quarantine administration, oversight of all sanitation services, preventive health programmes including vector control, national public health laboratories, Government chemists, dispensaries and health centres, Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Radiation Protection Board and member of KEMSA Board and KMTC Board.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Vision of the Ministry is “a nation free from preventable diseases and ill-health.” The Mission of the Ministry is “to provide effective leadership and participate in the provision of quality public health and sanitation services that are equitable, responsive, accessible and accountable to Kenyans.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the objectives of the health sector are to:- (i) increase equitable access to health services; (ii) improve the quality and responsiveness of services in the sector; (iii)improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery; (iv) promote partnerships, (v) enhance the regulatory capacity of the Ministry; and, (vi) improve the financing of the health sector. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the key goals for my Ministry for the planning period 2008 – 2012 include:-

(i) increase the number of children who have been fully immunized;

(ii) increase the capacity of health service, levels II and III, dispensaries and health centres to provide integrated management of childhood illness;

(iii) reduce the incidents of malnutrition in children under five years;

(iv) increase the utilization of cost-effective reproductive health services through increase in the proportion of deliveries by skilled attendants;

(v) increase contraceptive use and ante-natal attendants to, at least, four visits;

(vi) reduce new HIV infections by scaling up behaviour changes as well as coverage of core HIV prevention and interventions such as counseling and testing, prevention of mother to child transmission and male circumcision;

(vii) increase Tuberculosis detection and treatment;

(viii) rehabilitate and adequately equip Level II and III facilities;

(xi) reduce the proportion of facilities;

(x) reporting stock-outs;

(xi) increase sanitation coverage;

(xii) improve water safety at household level by promoting use of treated water;

(xiii) reduce the incidents of waterborne diseases;

(xiv) create an efficient and effective emergency and disaster management mechanism; and,

(xv) increase client satisfaction. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the achievements is that there has been an increase in the use of family planning, from 39 per cent in 2003 to 46 per cent in 2008/2009. These services are accessible in public health facilities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, also mortality has decreased from 115 per 1,000 in 2003 to 74 per 1,000 in 2008/2009. There has also been an increase in the ante-natal visits from 88 per cent in 2003 to 92 per cent in 2008/2009. Also skilled attendants at birth have increased from 40 per cent in 2003 to 43 per cent in 2008/2009. There has also been an increase in immunization coverage from 57 per cent in 2003 to 77 per cent in 2008/2009. There has also been increase in household ownership of mosquito nets with at least 60 per cent of households having a mosquito net. Incidences of malaria have dramatically decreased in Kenya, especially the highland malaria. Also, HIV prevalence has decreased from 6.7 per cent in 2003 to 6.3 per cent in 2008/2009.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Printed Estimates for Financial Year 2010/2011 may continue to redirect more resources at the community level to sustain the initiatives introduced in the last financial year. Indeed, we are pleased to report that the Health Sector Services Fund (HSSF) is now going to take charge of funding to communities by releasing resources directly to the gazetted dispensaries and health centres. The Ministry has allocated a total of Kshs680 million to the HSSF.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Ministry’s strategic focus for the Financial Year 2010/2011 will include and not to be limited to:-

(i) improving systems for maternal and neo-natal health;

(ii) Completion of the model health facilities in the constituencies;

(iii) supply and delivery of drugs to the dispensaries and health centres;

(iv) staffing of the facilities in line with the Budget Speech of June 2010, which includes 15 additional nurses, 5 public health officers and 10 community health workers;

(v) Equipping the facilities with basic equipment, including delivery beds;

(vi) up-scalling public health practices through education of the public on embracing basic public health practices such as hand washing;

(vii) food safety and quality surveillance; and,

(viii) disease surveillance, prevention and control. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the Printed Estimates for the Financial Year 2010/2011 allocated to my Ministry, the total budget is Kshs22,571,753,181 which is broken down as follows:- This figure has been broken down as follows:- The total amount is Kshs9,594,280,100. Out of that, Kshs6, 279,865, 750 or 65.5 per cent of the Recurrent budget is for personal emoluments and Kshs3,314,414,340 or 34.5 per cent of the Recurrent budget is for operations and maintenance. The total amount allocated to my Ministry in the Development budget for the Financial Year 2010/2011 is Kshs12,977,473.081. Out of that, Kshs8,034,473,078 or 62 per cent comprises of commitments from the country’s development partners and Kshs4,943,003 or 38 per cent is from the Government of Kenya. That is inclusive of the funds for the Economic Recovery and Poverty Alleviation Programme totalling Kshs3,636,000,000. Let me comment a bit about the Economic Recovery and Poverty Alleviation Programme in the Financial Year 2010/2011. My Ministry has been allocated Kshs3,636,000,000 broken down as follows:- Recruitment of nurses and other health workers - Kshs2,071,000,000. Construction of buildings - Kshs1 billion. Purchase of beddings and linen - Kshs100 million. Lease of vehicles - Kshs294 million. Refined fuels and lubricants - Kshs60 million. Purchase of bicycles and motor cycles - Kshs111, 000,000. We are, indeed, grateful for the gesture that the Government has shown by continuing to channel resources to the health sector. However, whereas public funding for the health sector for both the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation and Ministry of Medical Services has increased in absolute terms from Kshs34.354 billion in the Financial Year 2007/2008 to Kshs51.272 billion in 2009/2010 thus reflecting an increase of 49 per cent, the overall allocations, that is, Recurrent and Development has remained within the same range of 6 per cent and 6.9 per cent of the overall total Government Budget over the last three years. This is way below the 15 per cent target set under the Abuja Declaration of 2001 in which Heads of States and Governments made specific commitments under the African Union. Kenya is also a signatory of the Maputo Declaration in which Heads of States and Governments of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States committed themselves to implement policies that focus on addressing the needs of the most vulnerable sections of our communities. In the Maputo Declaration, the Heads of States and Governments called for an increase of international support for programmes which are designed to assist the vulnerable members of our communities. Some of the pro-poor policies in the social sector included, but not limited to, education, women empowerment, child and maternal health, HIV/AIDS and malaria. In light of the Maputo Declaration, Kenya has made considerable progress in reducing infant mortality rate from 77 per 1000 live births to 52 per 1000 live births in 2008. HIV/AIDS prevalence reduced from 6.7 per cent in 2003 to 6.3 per cent in 2008/2009. Despite the advances made in delivering our mandate as a Ministry, we continue to experience challenges especially in the following areas:- Maternal and child mortality, non-communicable diseases, poverty levels and inadequate budgetary allocations. This is a major challenge especially in so far as provision of essential commodities is concerned. The allocation of Kshs1.186 billion to procure and distribute drugs during the Financial Year, 2010/2011 is inadequate. The Government plans to introduce the Pneumococcal vaccine in the immunization schedule for children through Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI). One of the conditions is co-financing to the tune of Kshs48,780,664. It is regrettable that the co-financing is not provided for in the Budget and, therefore, the Government risks losing out on the GAVI funding of Kshs1,628,188,800. That is a major area which is of great concern to my Ministry. Adverse weather conditions have seen an influx of incidences of disasters and resultant disease outbreaks such as cholera and malaria, which have negatively impacted on the current resources. In conclusion, I wish to request this House to approve the total budgetary allocation of Kshs22,571,753,181 for the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation - Vote 49 - for the Financial Year 2010/2011. I beg to move and request hon. Duale to second the Motion.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I stand here to second and support the Motion to adopt Vote 49 - Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. I will not go deep into the matters because the figures speak for themselves. The Minister has said that immunization figures have increased from 57 per cent in 2008 to 77 per cent. We have seen increased capacity in terms of health centers. We have figures of reduced malnutrition of children under five years. Under the Economic Stimulus Programme, we have seen the establishment of health centers and recruitment of staff. I want to confirm that, for the first time, in northern Kenya and other ASALs, nurses and health workers have been deployed in those remote parts of this country. We want to thank you and the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance for introducing the Economic Stimulus Programme under your Ministry. The Ministry has put it on the table that there was increased sanitation coverage from 46 per cent in 2003 to 66 per cent in 2007/2008. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are seeing a huge increase in anti-natal visits by the Kenyan mothers. This was 88 per cent in 2003 to 92 per cent in 2008. Under the leadership of the Minister, we have seen very credible figures. But we also want to thank the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance for increasing the budgetary provision within 49 per cent. We are telling him that we must go by both the Abuja and the Maputo declarations that were signed by the Heads of State. This cuts across all the Ministries. If you go the Ministry of Agriculture, there was an agreement in the Maputo Declaration. Last year, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance gave the health sector Kshs34 billion. This year, he has increased it to Kshs51 billion. The heath of the Kenyan people is far much more important than anything else. It is next to the security of the Kenyan people. In my opinion, education even comes second or third. Secondly, I want to support the Minister’s initiative in the creation of the Health Sector Service Fund, where health centres across the country will have their funding direct from this Fund. That is commendable. But as usual, I want to compare this improvement with the figures that we are getting from the ASAL region. We are getting figures that you cannot compare. Since 47 years of Independence, we have had Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Medical Services. The names are changing but the figures for northern Kenya against the national figures, again, are very worrying. We, as leaders, from northern Kenya, need to ask ourselves what went wrong. For example, 95 per cent of the children in North Eastern Province are born at home. This is against the national average figure of 69.5 per cent. This is food for thought for technicians, technical officers and the Minister. Why do we have these kind of figures? Why is it that only 11.8 per cent of infants in North Eastern Province have gone through immunization? Again, this is against the national figure of 63 per cent. What happened to the people of northern Kenya? Why are their figures that low? When you go to any indication, namely, health or the infrastructure, the figures are very worrying. Again, nearly a quarter of all infants in North Eastern Province and other ASAL areas are underweight due to malnutrition. Sometimes, we produce figures for the bureaucrats, the Government and other policy makers. Some of us do not see the essence of the creation of the Ministry of Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands. If you look at sanitation in North Eastern Province, you will realize that 51.1 per cent of the households have no access to toilet facilities. Again, the national figure is 14.8 per cent. About 50 per cent of the people of North Eastern Province draw water from unprotected wells. About 25 per cent of them use wells. About 25.4 per cent of people draw their water from rivers. They are, therefore, exposed to contamination. In a nutshell, I have given these figures to show that we are doing well as a Ministry. I want to support the Vote, but I want to ask the Minister and her team to look into North Eastern Province and other ASAL regions.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank you very much for allowing me to speak and support the Vote for the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, Vote 49. From the onset, may I thank the Minister for her frequent consultations with our Committee in regard to her Budget proposals. When we required the Minister to appear before the Committee, she did so and we interrogated the Budget together, having first had a briefing by the Budget Office of the National Assembly. Let me thank the parliamentary staff, the Budget Office, the Clerk of the National Assembly and the Speaker for the support that my Committee has enjoyed. May I register that for a country to grow economically, it must have a healthy population. Before we address ourselves to any other development agenda in this country, we must address the issue of our health. This is the mandate of the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, which is charged with the responsibility of preventive and promotive health care. At this juncture, I would like to thank the Ministry of Finance for the consideration it has given to this particular Ministry. In the last Financial Year 2009/2010, the Ministry had an allocation of Kshs19 billion. In this current financial year, the Ministry made a request for Kshs21 billion and it was allocated Kshs22.5 billion, an excess of Kshs1.5 billion, which puts the Ministry and the Minister a step forward to offer services beyond the planned ones. We, as a Committee, shall be putting our eyes on the Ministry to see that the extra funds of Kshs1.5 billion are used to offer services that will benefit the population of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Minister has said quite a lot about our standing in our budgetary allocation to our population compared to the rest of the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has put it at US$34 per capita to provide very basic health care. Of course, we are signatories to the Abuja Declaration as already mentioned by the Minister. We are also signatories to the Maputo Declaration. We have put ourselves afoot to reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. This is a commitment by the Government. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Millennium Development Goals Nos.4 and 5 talk about maternal mortality and child mortality. We want to change this situation. It is disturbing that we lose 448 mothers from child bearing related conditions, which are preventable. These are issues which must be addressed by this Ministry, so that we can attain the Millennium Development Goals and Vision 2030. We cannot get there even though we have the information, unless in our budgetary allocations, we address these concerns. As I indicated earlier last year, despite our commitment, even in Abuja, to raise our health sector annual budget to 15 per cent of the national Budget, we only managed to raise it to 5.4 per cent. In the current financial year, we have managed to raise it to only between 6 and 7 per cent of our national Budget. This gives us a big gap, although there is still growth in budgetary allocation by the Treasury. We still need to increase our budgetary allocation to the health sector if we expect to provide health services that will serve our people well. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, despite the many good things that the Ministry has done, there are areas in respect of which we need to raise concerns. In particular, these will include the Economic Stimulus Programmes (ESPs) that the Ministry undertook from the last financial year. We want to emphasise that the Ministry ensures that the programmes we embarked on in the last financial year are brought to completion by either the end of the current financial year or the year after. They must come to end, so that we do not put public resources into waste. Hon. Members will remember that in infrastructure, we have already embarked on construction of wards. Those projects have to come to completion and get drugs and the equipment needed for them, so that we finally take Kenyans to the model health centres that we have intended to take them to. We recruited nurses in the last financial year. The Ministry has done very well to employ 20 nurses per constituency. This is the direction we want to request the Ministry to go in respect to other areas, so that as we have nurses, we consider recruiting other technical officers. It is the recommendation of this Committee that the Ministry recruits clinical officers to run the facilities and give prescriptions to the patients who will visit those health centres; we should have lab technicians, so that we can provide comprehensive healthcare. We want to urge the Minister, as a Committee, that we get the right equipment in good time, so that we can put it into use. The frequent stock-outs of drugs in medical facilities are also a concern to Kenyans, and the Committee recommends that the Ministry looks into this issue. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I conclude, there is a concern that there are staff members in this Ministry who are on contract from our development partners. We are asking that these be considered, so that as their contracts come to an end, the Ministry absorbs them, so that we do not create a vacuum in service delivery in those areas where these technical personnel are serving. Finally, there was an indication of hiring 300 ambulances for this Ministry. The Committee would want this deferred until there is proper consultation. It is the proposal of the Committee to the Ministry that the ambulances be purchased so that they can be owned by the Ministry rather than hiring them for one year or for whatever period of time, and then surrendering them back to their owners. This will not give us value for our money as a country. Therefore, we are asking the Ministry to do full consultation before arriving at the best way forward in procurement of ambulance services. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to congratulate the Ministry for the Health Sector Service Fund. What I want to indicate on this is that as the funds go to the specific health facilities, there is need for the committees in those health facilities to be strengthened, and have their capacities improved before they are given funds; that is the only way in which they will be able to manage the funds. This is a new thing to them, and we do not expect them to be effective in management of those resources. The Ministry needs to re-look at its allocation to family planning and maternal child mortality, as I alluded to earlier. We need to control our population. Until there are proper family planning mechanisms put in place, we may not manage, because development must be related to population growth. Therefore, we must manage our family planning. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), as a research institution, needs funding. The trend in this country is that we have parastatals and other public institutions, which we surrender, in terms of funding, to our development partners. Therefore, we live on chance or the goodwill of our development partners. We are, therefore, asking that the Government re-looks at its funding, particularly in this financial year, of KEMRI, if we expect effective research to be carried out by this institution. The funding for KEMRI is quite low, and we need to address it. Finally, the Minister has already talked about employment of more technical staff, comprising of nurses and others. We want, as a Committee, to advise that we shall not have sufficient technical personnel in this country for hire, unless we increase the training capacity of the Medical Training College (MTC). Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, until the Government allocates money for the expansion of existing MTC, so that we have sufficient space to train more nurses, clinical officers and other technical personnel, we may need to employ more technical staff and find that we do not have enough of them. I fear that we may not get the 15 nurses we want to employ for each constituency this financial year. With those very many remarks, it is my pleasure to record that, as a Committee, we support Vote 49, Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, once again, let me take the opportunity to also join my colleagues to fully and very strongly support this critical Motion on the Vote of the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. Firstly, let me thank the Minister for providing efficient and effective leadership in the Ministry. I also thank the Permanent Secretary, who has been very diligent and generous. I recall at one time, when I visited his office, I was given a cup of tea, which is very rare in other Ministries.

I also want to extend the same appreciation to the Director of Public Health who has featured largely, particularly when there are disasters and the public needs to be assured of their position and status. I will make a few observations.

First is on the issue of drugs. At times, our health centres have lacked stock for critical drugs. When these drugs are not there, the poor Kenyans would not be able to afford them in private pharmacies. That can really affect the lives of our people. Therefore, the procurement system must be improved if we have to improve the welfare of our people. Drugs for HIV/Aids victims must also be made available at any one time because this is a very important segment of our society and must not be at the mercy of private hospitals.

Concerning the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), I wish to register my appreciation for the quick intervention that the Minister gave to the bureaucratic interference that was noted, regarding the implementation of this programme in my constituency. Some staff would not be comfortable with certain developments in certain constituencies and, therefore, the Minister qualifies to be congratulated for coming in rightly. I wish to assure her that this project in my constituency is almost starting. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, concerning the recruitment of the 20 nurses, this was done well in my constituency and it is going to translate in better performance and better services in our constituencies. Old mothers will now not necessarily walk long distances to look for services. Employment has also been guaranteed for those youths who have been out for longer periods. We also need ambulances in our health centres, particularly for mothers who are ready to bring young ones on this earth and yet the required services are not available. For these emergencies therefore, I would recommend very strongly that we have ambulances in our health centres. I note with appreciation the commitment by the Minister to gallantly fight the jigger menace in our society. By extension, the Minister has given that commitment that healthcare would be improved in primary and secondary schools. By doing so, academic performance and quality of learning in our schools would definitely improve. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wish to register my appreciation to the Minister for Public Health and Sanitation who came out to assure Kenyans, particularly when we had the flood threat, that there were adequate drugs to fight cholera threat. It is also important that the issue of delivery beds in our health centres be addressed critically because some of them were supplied in the 1970s and 1980s; so, they are old and shaky. We need babies to come to this earth on very decent delivery beds. Therefore, new beds must be supplied so that the health of our mothers and young babies is not interfered with. This Ministry is very unique. With those few remarks, I support.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support the Motion. The first thing that I would like to say is that I am still lost why we have two Ministries of Health. There is one for preventive care and public health. That is something that needs to be sorted out. Under Vision 2030, healthcare is the main pillar. I am very pleased that the Minister has been able to ably put forward a Budget which has been fully met. That shows you how much good work and thought has been put into the Budget. There are many things that I feel the Minister of Public Health and Sanitation has been burdened with. They have been burdened by years of neglect. They have also been burdened with the fact that health centres and clinics all over the country that are under the responsibility of the local authorities have all gone to the dogs. I think the Ministry has a very large and difficult task to have them reinstated. I urge the Minister to put forward an amendment to the Bill so that health centres can revert back to the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. They have the ability and the people on the ground. In any case, most of the health services and health centres that are working in this country are actually under the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. It has actually taken very serious interest in them. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to suggest that HIV/Aids, though a major pandemic is no longer the emergency that it was ten years ago. As such, the budget for it which is under the Office of the President should be consolidated and brought under the Ministry of Public Health. That is where the systems are and the money can be properly accounted for. We do not want to hear people having those suspicious workshops all over the country and losing millions of shillings whereas the Ministry needs every single cent. This Ministry must work very well and closely with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. Water, sanitation and public health go hand in hand. I was a mayor and a chairman of a certain hospital for over ten years. Actually, most of my life, I have been involved in hospitals. To date, I have not seen good collaborative work between the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. This is something that we need to work on very well. The Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation now needs to be more forceful. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to speak about the state of affairs in Kisumu and I know that Nairobi and Mombasa are the same. We have rubbish piled up in the centre of the cities. There are diseases and lack of sanitation and the Public Health Office is doing nothing. I think the Minister needs now to get away from the watchdog to the bulldog. I would be very pleased to support her as she closes down the local authorities. The Ministry has that power. If the local authority is not observing the public health requirements, then you can close it down. I can see a former Provincial Medical Officer (PMO) sitting here and he is now an Assistant Minister. This has been a problem. Finally, the issue of Kshs1 billion for building - I presume that is to do with the ESP. I want to be very clear on the issue of ambulances. The Minister should be very careful.

Your time is up!

With those few remarks, I support.

(Mrs. Kilimo)

There are many of you who want to speak; if you can make it three or four minutes so that we can give everybody an opportunity, the better!

I want thank my sister, the Minister for Public Health and Sanitation. I think she has good public relations with her officers. I say so because in my constituency, we had a crisis of cholera over Easter and through to May. Her officers worked over the weekend and they were able to transfer other officers from other areas to come and support the ones we had. I think the budget is well enough. However, I would request that more public health officers should be trained, more so than the nurses because prevention is better than cure. I want to take this opportunity to really thank her officers, the PS and the provincial officers. Even in weddings and funerals, they were there, disinfecting people for two months in my constituency. Thank you very much.

May I go to people who have not spoken this afternoon. Yes, Mr. Mwatela!

Asante, Mheshimiwa Naibu Spika wa Muda. Ningependa kutofautiana kidogo na ndugu yangu, mhe. Shabeel, kuwa Wizara hii ingekuwa moja. Ninaona ni vizuri Wizara hizi ziendelee kuwa tofauti. Kwanza, ninaunga mkono kazi inayofanywa na Waziri pamoja na kikosi chake kuhakikisha kuwa wananchi wanaendelea kuwa na afya bora. Kazi muhimu ya Wizara hii ni ya kuzuia maradhi na kuhakikikisha kuwa wananchi wetu wako na afya nzuri. Ni tofauti sana na kazi ya kutibu watu. Ingekuwa ni Wizara ambayo inaunganiza Wizara nyingi za Serikali mojawapo ikiwa Wizara ya Maji na Unyunyizaji, Wizara ya Elimu na Wizara ya Ardhi. Kuna sehemu ambazo zinalimwa na watu ambazo zinahatarisha ama kuruhusu kuchafuka kwa maji. Kama hatua zingechukuliwa kuhakikisha kuwa sehemu hizo hazilimwi, bila shaka sehemu hizo zingekuwa na maji safi zaidi. Naendelea kumshukuru Waziri kwa namna ya kipekee kwa sababu mara nyingi nimefika kwake kumwomba mizaada tofauti ya dharura. Hata leo hivi, amenipatia msaada kidogo kwa sababu ni na kambi ya kujaribu kuhudumia watu wangu Jumamosi hii. Ninamwalika ndugu aje kushuhudia jinsi tunavyowahudumia wagojwa. Nakushukuru Waziri kwa kazi yake nzuri. Kwa hayo machache, ninaunga mkono.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for noticing that I have not contributed on the Floor. I want to start by outright supporting this Vote. If we have to realize Vision 2030, this is one of the key Ministries that must be supported. It must be anchored to the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Agriculture as one of my colleagues has mentioned. It must also be anchored to the Ministry of Water and Irrigation and the Ministry of Livestock. At the end of the day, without good health, we cannot create wealth. I think it is very important to mention that so that when the Minister is pushing for her staff members to be officials of all those Ministries on matters to do with hygiene, education, agriculture, livestock, dairy farming and all that, we need to see an element of public health so that we can achieve our objectives. Without enough water, there is no way the Ministry will be able to realize its objectives of hygiene. Without quality production of milk, we will always be treating diseases; without proper feeding, we will always be treating malnutrition. I think it is very important for the Minister to note that and push for staff of the Ministry to be anchored in every other Ministry that has something to do with the quality of health of a human being. While it is very important they are anchored, they have to realize why; like in the Ministry of Education, schools are closing daily because of toilets. As we are talking, a market in Embu called Kithimu is closed because of toilets. When you approach the councilor or the Clerk to tell the community that your market will be closed, they cannot do it effectively. It is the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation employees who should do that so that they can signal to the community that they are going to suffer irreparable damage if they do not adhere to the requirements of the Ministry. This can only be possible where they are anchored in every other meeting that takes place in the community. I would want to say the Ministry should embark on a very aggressive campaign to ensure that the Ministry of Medical Services does not make you carry all the burden. As we talk, public health institutions, health centres and dispensaries charge Kshs20 to open a card while hospitals charge Kshs50. Naturally, what happens is that every other community member who is sick is offloaded to the health centres and at the end of the day, you do not have enough facilities when these sick people ought to have gone to the hospital but they prefer to go to the health centre because you charge Kshs20 like in my place, when the big hospital is charging Kshs50. This difference ends up heaping all the burden on the health centres and they end up not being able to deliver services as you would have wanted. There are some health centres which are more of hospitals because of where they are located. We do not have ambulances, we do not have staff quarters yet, they operate at night. An example is Kalau Health Centre which is next to the forest and 25 kilometres away from Embu Town. It is important for such health institutions to be addressed.

With those few remarks I support.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for noticing me. I want to thank the Minister and her staff for the good work that they are doing at the moment by addressing this very important aspect of human health. I have in mind to commend her particularly for what she was able to do when we, in Rongai, had a very serious problem. There was a lorry that was involved in a road accident and which occasioned loss of more than 100 people. The role that Ministry played by consoling and assisting those who survived cannot go unnoticed. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Ministry so much for the role they played at that time in the form of assistance and consoling people. As I say this, I have a few concerns I wish to raise, particularly in respect to the many health facilities we have developed through the use of the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). Across constituencies, we have built many structures, including dispensaries. We have even improved on the existing health centres. However, one thing that has come out very clearly is that if these facilities were properly equipped with qualified staff, we would be achieving the purpose for which those facilities were developed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to take this opportunity to request the Minister and her staff to look carefully at the number of facilities that we have developed not just in my constituency but the whole country because I believe it is happening all over. She should ensure that the people get value for the money that we have put in the development of those structures. This should be done by sending enough staff to those facilities. There are so many of these health facilities, particularly dispensaries. In some dispensaries, we have put everything in place. You will find that sometimes, we have one nurse and in some cases, we do not have even one. This is an area I would request the Ministry to look into carefully. Second is the issue of drugs. The drugs that we get from time to time--- I want to commend the Ministry for the efforts they are making but there is one big problem. In areas where there is no supervision, the very officers you have employed and sent to man the health facilities have become the problem by stealing drugs and selling them to private pharmacists. This is something that you need to look into by way of improving on supervision. With those few remarks, I want to commend the Ministry. I support this vote.

I allow Dr. Eseli, Mrs. Odhiambo-Mabona and Mr. Musila, two minutes each! Dr. Eseli, please proceed!

Thank you Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for allowing me to support this Motion. Without saying too many things, first I would like to commend the Minister and her staff for the good work that they are doing. Now that they have taken most of the CDF funded health centres and posted nurses, I think you will see the impact of this in due course. However, I would like to alert the Minister on something. If you intend to lease ambulances, that is a big mistake. An ambulance is a motor vehicle but it is not any other motor vehicle. It is a piece of medical equipment. You are not going to lease a piece of medical equipment for a year. That would be wrong. I have bought some ambulances through the CDF and know how much they cost. If buying 210 ambulances will cost you Kshs504 million and leasing costs Kshs294 million and you will not have the vehicle for ever, I think buying is a better option than leasing. Lastly, on HIV management, it is important that the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation realizes that they need to put more money in control of HIV. In this case, I am talking of treatment. Treatment is a form of control for HIV. This is because basic science teaches us that it depends on how much bacteria you ingest in order to get a disease. In the case of HIV, when somebody is on treatment, they have fewer viruses and do not transmit the disease. You need to improve treatment because when many people are on treatment, you reduce transmission. There is no question about it. If you want to spend less money on health, you have to spend money on HIV management. With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity to support Vote 49. In supporting, I want to note that the Ministry has been allocated an extra Kshs1.5 billion that they did not ask for. I would want to urge the Minister that in light of the fact that I would be receiving a petition from World Match for Women, Kenyan Chapter and Partnership for Change tomorrow, on behalf of the Parliamentary Caucus on Children on the issue of maternal and infant mortality rates in Kenya, please, allocate the entire Kshs1.5 billion to be utilised for reducing maternal and infant mortality rate in Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am saying so because even though you have given us those figures, if you compare them with worldwide figures, Kenyan standards are unacceptably high. If you look at women and girls who die due to pregnancy related complications, it is 14,700 and 294,000 to 441,000 who suffer from disabilities that are caused by complications during pregnancies and child birth such as obstetric fistula. I would also want to encourage the Minister that with the new Constitution, there are two important issues that relate to the issues I would like us to look at. One is the issue of equity, especially for rural areas. Many of the women who die, do so in rural areas. There is also regional equity. Areas like Nyanza which lead in child mortality rates because they cannot access health centres, must be given priority under the new Constitution. Article 26 of the new Constitution was demonized. Please, give light to it by protecting the lives of women and children. Coming up with the demonized Reproductive Health Bill does not talk about abortion; it talks about preventing the lives of women and children. With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Thank you Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute in support of this Motion. I would like to commend the Ministry for the work they have done, particularly in the employment of nurses to man dispensaries. This has gone a long way in alleviating the suffering the people in the rural areas have been having. We had dispensaries constructed through the CDF and others constructed long time ago but were closed because of lack of personnel. I must commend the Ministry for this good job. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the only problem we still have is the provision of drugs. We still do not have sufficient drugs supplied to these facilities. I urge the Ministry to ensure that there are sufficient drugs this financial year to supply to both health centres and dispensaries. You find some health centres get dispensary kits. This anomaly should be corrected. I would like to urge the Ministry to provide transport to the public health officers. This could be vehicles or motor cycles. In my constituency, even the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) has no vehicle. The Ministry should look for areas without these vehicles and provide them. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to urge the Ministry to enhance malaria control. They should spray bushes, schools and markets so that incidents of malaria are reduced. With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Mr. Musila, you have one minute. I will also take two minutes of the Minister’s time if he allows.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will do that. I stand here to very strongly support Vote 49. During the last few years, there has been great improvement in health delivery in rural areas. I speak as the Member for Mwingi South Constituency with an area of 5,000 square kilometers. I want to commend the Minister and her staff for the work they have done. I also want to commend the Chairman of this important Committee. I have had an opportunity to tour my constituency with the Chairman and, therefore, I want to thank them for the work that they are doing.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, having now embarked on the construction of dispensaries with the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and most of them now being opened, I want us to move to the second phase, which is to provide maternity wards in all the dispensaries. This is critical, considering that most of those areas are very remote and we do not even have the basic facilities.

The issue of ambulances for health centres cannot be over-emphasized. We need them. I want to ask my good friend the Minister to team up with her colleague - the other Minister - to whip Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (KEMSA). All what we are doing now will come to zero, unless KEMSA pulls up its socks. Tremendous improvement is being done, the officers are working very hard, we are creating dispensaries but, drugs are missing. Only about 50 per cent supply is being achieved by KEMSA for the ordered drugs. Therefore, I applaud the Minister, her staff, the Committee, this House and, more so, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance for providing the necessary money to do that. I hope that we can move forward now and improve the health delivery through immunization, supply of mosquito nets and condoms.

Mrs. Mugo, would you allow Dr. Laboso any time?

Yes, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Thank you, Madam Minister for giving me just two minutes to support this Budget. I want to say that this is a very important Ministry. I have just stood to say: Please, let us watch Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Four and Five – maternal health care and child mortality. We are still doing very badly as a country and we need to see more funding go into that area. I would also like to mention that we need to address family planning. Somewhere along the road, we lost out on family planning. As we were growing up, that was a very major sector but, somewhere along the road, we seem to have lost it. I would like to encourage the Minister to put more emphasis--- Let us go back to family planning because we know that the more reduced families we have, probably, the healthier they will be because we will be able to look after them.

I would also like to say that reproductive health in this country has also been hampered by harmful practices like Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and we need to put more money there. I am told from statistics that, at least, 38 per cent of women in this country undergo the cut. Mortality rate is still unacceptably high. When 590 women in one 100,000 die, it is not acceptable for a country such as ours. On HIV/AIDS, as Dr. Eseli has said, concentrate on the treatment. We are told that about 700 die daily from HIV/AIDS. Thank you for the 20 nurses that you are giving us. I want to also mention that we want to improve on equitable distribution of opportunities to Kenya Medical Training Centre (KMTC). Even as you give us 20 nurses, we have some constituencies which cannot raise that number because they were not trained in the first place. So, let us improve on the access into KMTC.

With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will donate two minutes to Dr. Gesami.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have come very far as a Ministry. Our challenge as a Ministry has been health care financing and I want to thank the Treasury, specifically for increasing the budget of the Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation. The other challenge has been, of course, human resource. This country requires about 76,000 nurses to offer proper health care. At the moment, we have only 17,000 nurses in the public sector and another, maybe, 17,000 in the private sector. You can see that we have a long way to go. I want to thank the Government for allowing us to employ 15 more nurses per constituency this financial year.

Mrs. Mugo, I hope you appreciate that your time runs out at 6.20 p.m.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Treasury should know that the extra Kshs1 billion that it gave us was not enough. It was a drop in the sea. With those few remarks, I beg to support.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I apologize to my friend, Mr. Ethuro, because I only have three or four minutes remaining. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the hon. Members for their kind words to my Ministry, officers and I. We will continue to try and serve you even better. We have taken note of all your comments. So, because of time I will only go to a few. I noted, especially the cry from North Eastern Province about their figures and we will pay special attention to the province. I want to make it clear right now that the Kshs21 billion excluded the Stimulus Package. So, unfortunately, we cannot put it to maternal reproductive or anywhere, because it is part of the stimulus package. It is not additional money. You will also note that we are now paying more staff in our Ministry and, therefore, some of the money was for emoluments. On the model health centres, it is definitely in the budget. I would urge MPs to continue sending us their records so that we can dispatch the second lot. We will be asking for more money because what we have will not be quite enough. On stock-out, we are adopting a new strategy; we are working with KEMSA. We believe that it will be a thing of the past. We are putting up a new strategy in place. I want to assure Mr. Shakeel that we need the two Ministries right now. That is why you can see so much work is being done in public health which was neglected in the past. On CDF, we have opened several dispensaries now. The slow pace will be because of not enough drugs. We will be asking for more money from the Treasury because we need to be able to open more health facilities; we will need more drugs, even if we are now getting extra nurses. Our hope and strategy is to open all of them because we do not want to waste money. I would urge the hon. Members to halt building new facilities until we can take stock and see how many of them we can open. We will work together on this. On the issue of ambulances, I completely agree. I have been discussing this issue with my officers. We are consulting with the Treasury and we will pass your feelings very strongly that we should purchase ambulances and not lease them. It is not practical; we are still consulting. We will try to rush the consultations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I agree very much with Dr. Eseli on HIV management. We need to up our treatment management, because that will prevent new cases or rapid infections. I also want to agree very much with Mr. Shakeel that it would be much more practical if HIV is addressed by the Ministry of Public Health because it is a preventive measure. The social side is not as urgent as preventive. So, I hope those feelings will be carried forth and maybe, we will try and address it at the right forum. We note the equity issue and we will look into the issues you mentioned. We have taken note of them. Thank you and I beg to move.

Hon. Members we are now in the Committee of the whole House. We would begin with Vote 31, Ministry of Education.

Vote 31 - The Ministry of Education

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I beg to move:- THAT a sum not exceeding Kshs67,946,969,635 be issued from the Consolidated Fund to complete the sum necessary to meet expenditure during the year ending 30th June, 2011, in respect of:-

Vote 31 – The Ministry of Education

VOTE R31 – RECURRENT EXPENDITURE

SUB-VOTE 310 – GENERAL ADMINISTRATION AND PLANNING

( Heads 730, 834, 837, 838, 839, 841, 845, 862 and 863 agreed to)

SUB-VOTE 311 – BASIC EDUCATION

SUB-VOTE 312 – QUALITY ASSURANCE AND STANDARDS

SUB-VOTE 313 – SECONDARY AND TERTIARY EDUCATION

SUB-VOTE 314 – POLICY AND PLANNING

SUB-VOTE 315 – DEPARTMENT OF ADULT EDUCATION

VOTE D31 – DEVELOPMENT EXPENDITURE

SUB-VOTE 310 – GENERAL ADMINISTRATION AND PLANNING

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, on Head 834, Item 2640500 – Other Capital Grants and Transfers, you will notice that last year, this was allocated Kshs229 million. In this Budget, it has been reduced to Kshs4.6 million. For the subsequent years, there is nothing for the projected estimates. Could the Minister provide an explanation for such a sharp drop and then to complete termination? What were those grants for?

Mr. Minister, are you ready to answer that one or you want to consult with your officers? Take your time.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, when I talked about the Development Vote, I mentioned that despite the fact that we had a very big vote of Kshs9 billion in the last financial year, this year, it was cut by Kshs2 billion. Most of these grants were cut mostly because of the sagas. Some of the grants were in the form of development programmes. For example, the World Food Programme (WFP) reduced its subsidy for us and, therefore, we have to supplement it from the other grants. As more and more partners come into the phase, we will include them. One area that is clear is that the partners’ contribution is never captured in the Development Budget but it comes as an external phase.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, I want to seek further clarification from the Minister, courtesy of what he had already shared with us on Head 834 with regard to basic salaries and wages for the temporary employees. The Kshs2 billion is quoted under Development Expenditure. Why is that the case? Secondly, the projected estimate is Kshs2.2 billion for 2011/2012 and Kshs2.3 billion for 2012/2013. Is it a new policy that we are now going to hire these teachers on contract for the next three years?

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, that is a special one-off budget for economic recovery and poverty alleviation programme which is ongoing at this stage.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, mine is an observation that I want to make. I want to thank very sincerely, the Minister for Education, Prof. Ongeri, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Executive---

On a point of order, Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir. I think my colleague, the Member for Lari, is ahead of the rest of us. Why do you not just inform him that we are still interrogating the Vote of the Ministry?

Order, hon. Ethuro! Hon. Njuguna, you have the right to appreciate the Minister for the good work that he is doing, but very briefly.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, for that protection. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, mine was to observe that the Minister for Education, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance and the KNUT Executive Committee need to be congratulated for facilitating the employment of teachers on contract.

Thank you. Hon. Ethuro, do you have further questions?

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, under the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC), Head 839, Item No.3110200, Construction of Building, the approved amount for last year was Kshs150 million. This year, it is Kshs50 million, next year, Kshs70 million and the year after, Kshs80 million. Could the Minister tell us when will this building be completed? This is because you will notice that under the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), there is actually under Head No.841, Kshs30 million, termination this Financial Year and in the following year, there is no further provision. I am sure a building must be finished within a reasonable time.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, under the KNEC, it is not one building but several of them which are being renovated and brought up to speed with the development which is ongoing. It was not feasible to capture the entire Development Budget in one fiscal year. Therefore, this was split out.

On a point of order, Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir.

Can you let the Minister complete his explanation?

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, the Kshs70 million is going to help the Mtihani House where they are doing some development progress. They could do with more if we had more in the Budget but unfortunately, that is what was put in the Budget and that is what we have been able to accommodate; that is, for the rehabilitation of Mtihani House and the other houses.

On a point of order, Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir. The Head is on construction of building and the Minister is making reference to renovation. Surely, those are two different items. That is what I wanted the Minister to know.

Mr. Minister, is that construction or renovation?

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, you cannot rehabilitate without constructing.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, as you can see, this is a very vital Ministry which consumes a lot of our money. I wanted to ask a question regarding Head 862, item, 3110200 on Construction of Buildings under the District Education Services. You will notice that we are approving---

Order, Mr. Ethuro! Are you talking about Head 862?

Yes, Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir.

I am sorry that we have already voted on that and now we are on Sub-vote 311.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, that is because you overruled us. However, I will accept the ruling.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, on Head 813, item 3110200, Construction of Building which is for the Department of Adult Education. That is on page 622.

Hon. Ethuro, I know that you really want to seek clarification but, please, I am on Sub-vote 313, and I want to deal with that.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, that is exactly where I am.

No! We will get to Sub-vote 315 and Head 813 will be there. You can then seek your clarification at that particular time.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir. I stand guided. I will be waiting.

SUB-VOTE 314 – POLICY AND PLANNING

SUB VOTE 315 – DEPARTMENT OF ADULT EDUCATION

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I now fully understand. If you repeated the Votes, it would be clear. On Sub-vote 315, Head 813, Item 3110200- Construction of Buildings for Adult Education Department, you have a constant figure of Kshs20 million. Again, I am just seeking a clarification from the Minister. Why do we have the same figure every year and when will that building be constructed? Is this going to be another source of construction being the same as renovation?

This is a very straightforward thing. The Department of Adult Education came to my Ministry in the last financial year. Before that, it was under the Ministry of Culture and Social Services. There was nominal development at their place of stay and therefore, that is just at the tail end. It is chasing the same way you saw the Teachers Service Commission building development. It did not take Kshs30 million. That building took nearly Kshs1billion. Therefore, in the Department of Adult Education, this was the tail end of that expenditure being met. Therefore, there is a provision of Kshs20 million to complete it. There is nothing sinister about it.

Vote 49 - Ministry Public Health and Sanitation

Mrs. Mugo): Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I beg to move:- THAT, a sum not exceeding Kshs8,692,047,670 be issued from the Consolidated Fund to complete the sum necessary to meet expenditure during the year ending 30th June, 2011, in respect of:-

Vote 49 – Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, under Head 114, Item 2110200, on Basic Wages – Temporary Employees; you can see that the amount provided in the current financial year, and the amounts projected for the next two financial years are constant at Kshs2,071,000,000. The law of the land is that you cannot engage temporary employees, who in this case I believe will be casual labourers, for more than three months. She will engage them for three years. Does that also include the people who are on other programmes like that funded by UNICEF, whom she is proposing to absorb into mainstream Government employment?

Minister, are you able to respond to that one right away?

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, I need to consult my officers.

Hon. Members, we have about 11 minutes to the end of business. If we proceed in the way we have been doing, we will be able to conclude voting for this important Vote.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Chairman, Sir, this is the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) money, and it will be renewed. It is the ESP funds for three years. It is not the normal employment. It is the ESP.

SUB-VOTE 491 – PREVENTIVE MEDICINE AND PROMOTIVE HEALTH

SUB-VOTE 492 – DISEASE CONTROL SERVICES

SUB-VOTE 494 – PRIMARY HEALTH SERVICES

SUB-VOTE 495 – TECHNICAL SUPPORT SERVICES

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am directed to report that the Committee of Supply has considered the Resolution that a sum not exceeding Kshs67,949,969,635 be issued from the Consolidated Fund to complete the sum necessary to meet expenditure during the year ending 30th June, 2011, in respect of Vote 31 – Ministry of Education and has approved the same without amendment.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that the House doth agree with the Committee in the said Resolution.

(Mrs. Mugo) seconded.

Vote 49 – Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am directed to report that the Committee of Supply has considered the Resolution that a sum not exceeding Kshs8,692,047,670 be issued from the Consolidated Fund to complete the sum necessary to meet expenditure during the year ending 30th June, 2011, in respect of Vote 49 – Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation and has approved the same without amendment.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to move that the House doth agree with the Committee in the said Resolution.

(Prof. Ongeri) seconded.

Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish on my own behalf, to join the House in agreeing with the said resolutions.

Hon. Members, it is now time to adjourn the House. The House stands adjourned until tomorrow Thursday, 19th August, 2010 at 9.00 a.m.

The House rose at 7.00 p.m.