Wetangula Suspends Ruto’s Education Reforms
Members of Parliament (MPs) have halted the implementation of the presidential working group’s education reform recommendations.
Moses Wetangula, the speaker of the National Assembly, stated that it is illegal for recommendations to be implemented before passing through Parliament.
He added that the role of the legislators is to legislate, so the recommendations must be debated in the House of Representatives before they can be approved for implementation.
“I repeat nobody; no minister of government can purport to make law or do things that appear to be in the (sic) that they have made law because they have no capacity to make any law,” he said.
Parliament was informed by Emuhaya MP Omboko Milemba, who disclosed that the recommendations had caused a rift among education sector stakeholders, including the Ministry of Education, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), and unions.
Milemba, the chairman of the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), stated that such recommendations should be suspended until they are approved by the legislature.
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“The recommendations that the Ministry of Education reveals the grades for pre-service teachers jeopardize TSC’s mandate as provided under Article 237 (3) of the Constitution,” he stated.
“The working party also recommended that the Ministry establishes a comprehensive school system where all levels of learning are managed as one institution contrary to the Constitution. The working party further recommends that the Ministry recruits staff for special needs in institutions, which will interfere with TSC’s mandate.”
Other legislators concurred with Milemba that the recommendations should be introduced as a measure in the legislature.
“The recommendations made by the Working party remain recommendations until they are reduced to a bill and brought to this House or it is reduced into a regulation which is brought to this House and committed to a committee,” Samuel Chepkonga, Ainabkoi MP said.
National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah stated that he would consult with the Ministry of Education and report back to Parliament on the matter.
“I have nothing much to add because the law is the law. Nobody including Cabinet Secretaries has the power to make law even a presidential working party. The best they can do is to make recommendations which, if adopted, those that touch on statutes, then it must begin from this House,” he stated.
Wetangula Suspends Ruto’s Education Reforms