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Front and centre in the news and the public consciousness, this and last week, has been the issue of educational requirements for members of parliament. The bone of contention: whether it should be a legislative requirement that those running for the post of Member of Parliament should hold a university degree. Until last week the law was pretty clear on the matter. The Election Act, enacted and assented to by the President in 2011, clearly states in section 22 (2) that:
“A person may be nominated as a candidate for election as President, Deputy President, county Governor or deputy county Governor only if the person is a holder of a degree from a university recognized in Kenya”
However in the harsh light of an impending election, the fact that the degree requirement in the Election Act will lock out at almost 100 members of the current parliament from running not only for their positions in the national assembly but also for the positions of senator, county governor, and deputy county governor, has MPs doing a U-turn on the law. The very same MPs/legislators that enacted the law, along with the provision of educational requirements, are back tracking and now want the to amend a law that they passed less than a year ago, to delete the clause requiring MPs to be holders university degrees.
Of course all the usual questions arise about whether or not they understood the law when they passed it, why the passed if they had no intention of sticking to its provisions, or later changing them.
The bigger underlying question is how important is a university education, for the job of an MP. Last week the argument was advanced by several MPs that a majority of Kenyans do not have a university degree education so not only is the legislative degree requirement not representative of the regular Kenyan, but that the provision is inherently discriminatory in requiring a degree qualification for those running for the office of MP as it locks out a majority of Kenyan’s from running from running for the position. (Check who said what in parliament’s debate on the Elections Act here)
To me the premise of this argument seems shaky at best. Lets face it governing and legislating is difficult a job. There’s the challenging work of representing a diverse group of people with varying interests, crafting legislation that balances the public good and the individual rights, assembling coalitions between parties, trudging through the committee processes, making concession, agreeing to comprises, then there’s the oversight part of the job, and the providing of checks and balances for the other organs of government, and the vetting of personnel for appointed positions including court of appeal judges, supreme court judges, and constitutional commissioners.
If a university degree is not required for this level of work, then what level of education is?
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