The government has been challenged to shoulder the responsibility of providing students with masks and sanitizers as schools re-open in January, Ugunja MP, Opiyo Wandayi has said.
Wandayi said that it was the duty and responsibility of the government to ensure that pupils and students from both public and private schools are provided with the basic protective facilities against the coronavirus.
He was speaking at Rang’ala Catholic Mission yesterday during a Deanery Family Day occasion which was led by Archbishop Philip Anyolo of the Kisumu archdiocese.
Wandayi said that the government has had no less than nine months since 13th march, 2020 when the first case of coronavirus was reported in the country and is supposed to have prepared adequately for the reopening.
“I still maintain that it is the duty and responsibility of the government to provide basic facilities including masks and sanitizers to all our children in schools without exception be it in public or private schools,” said Wandayi, the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in the National Assembly.
The legislator called on principals and heads of schools to exercise patience with the students and allow them to learn even without paying fees, adding that parents and guardians were yet to come out of the debilitating effects of coronavirus on the economy.
Wandayi called on the church to continue praying for peace in the country as it enters 2021, a year, he added, when the citizens will make serious decisions concerning the future of the nation.
“Chief of which is a decision on the impending referendum to change the governance structure of this country,” said the legislator adding that religious leaders should pray that Kenya goes through the referendum in a peaceful manner.
The Ugunja MP called on Kenyans to continue exercising caution and observing the Ministry of Health protocols on coronavirus.
“As we get into 2021, I would want to urge all of us to continue exercising caution because Coronavirus is still with us” he said.
By Philip Onyango.
