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{
"id": 1394041,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1394041/?format=api",
"text_counter": 196,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Sen. Kathuri, do you have any supplementary question?"
},
{
"id": 1394042,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1394042/?format=api",
"text_counter": 197,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Kathuri",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13590,
"legal_name": "Murungi Kathuri",
"slug": "murungi-kathuri"
},
"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, my question is on the national pending bills across the two institutions. My concern is the interest that is accruing, especially with KeNHA. As the Cabinet Secretary has put it, this is Kshs87 billion pending bills and the interest in Kshs4 billion. My other concern is that, we have so many dilapidated roads. If we are paying this interest, then this is the money which should be used to maintain such roads as the Cabinet Secretary has put it."
},
{
"id": 1394043,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1394043/?format=api",
"text_counter": 198,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Kathuri",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13590,
"legal_name": "Murungi Kathuri",
"slug": "murungi-kathuri"
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"content": "The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1394044,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1394044/?format=api",
"text_counter": 199,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Kathuri",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13590,
"legal_name": "Murungi Kathuri",
"slug": "murungi-kathuri"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, the issue is delayed funding from the Exchequer. Since we are planning as a country and a Government, why is there a delay in Exchequer release because most of these roads are funded through the Exchequer? Since the Cabinet Secretary says that he needs almost Kshs160 billion to clear all the pending bills, if he does not get it in the next one year, does it mean that we are again going to pay Kshs6 billion interest? The second one was about the maintainance of roads. My issue is that we have invested a lot on these roads. Once we fail to maintain them, we are losing that investment. For example, where I come from, we have a very busy road called Chogoria- Marimba-Meru Road. This road was built by the European Union (EU) to support the tea factories across that belt. However, it is never maintained. Once it rains, there is a lot of soil which piles on that particular road, and I have addressed it. Some of us have been around for some time and we have no vested interest on what happens when we make our request. Even though that we have no money for doing new roads and these other things, when some of us write to the Ministry requesting for support, even though we are not in the National Assembly, since we are representing people, when we make interventions through the Ministry for particular roads--- Mr. Speaker, Sir, you saw me walking on potholes in Meru County, along the Meru-Nairobi Highway because the road maintainance was poor. Some of us write to the Ministry requesting specific interventions and I request the Ministry today, on record, to be listening to us. We are the Njuri Ncheke elders. Once I ask the Cabinet Secretary or a Principal Secretary something, they must know that the issue is coming from the Kingdom of Meru."
},
{
"id": 1394045,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1394045/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " What is your question, Sen. Kathuri?"
},
{
"id": 1394046,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1394046/?format=api",
"text_counter": 201,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Kathuri",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13590,
"legal_name": "Murungi Kathuri",
"slug": "murungi-kathuri"
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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, the Cabinet Secretary should try and maintain the national highways. He should know that any intervention that is put across does not come from me, but from the great people of Meru."
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{
"id": 1394047,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1394047/?format=api",
"text_counter": 202,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kingi",
"speaker_title": "The Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Unfortunately, the Hon. Senator is done. Cabinet Secretary, proceed if you picked any question from that long speech."
},
{
"id": 1394048,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1394048/?format=api",
"text_counter": 203,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Murkomen",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
"slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
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"content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, I share the same concerns with the hon. Senator and Deputy Speaker. If there is any interest, then for his record, it is Kshs6 billion in the KeRRA), Kshs4 billion in the KeNHA and Kshs19 million in the KURA. That is interest only. There is something else to be added – claims. We cannot define them at the moment because a contractor will claim that machines are on site and they need more mobilisation money to go there or that the fuel prices have changed as well. Mr. Speaker, Sir, protracted pending bills like the ones we have from 2016/2017 to now is causing us problems. Two things, firstly, it is because you have an equal legislative mandate on roads as the National Assembly. We need to provide a cap similar to one in duplum rule; that even if you are going to ask for interest, it should not be more than twice the cost of the road."
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"id": 1394049,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1394049/?format=api",
"text_counter": 204,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Murkomen",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
"slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
},
"content": "The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
},
{
"id": 1394050,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1394050/?format=api",
"text_counter": 205,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Murkomen",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
"slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
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"content": "I wish I brought this example here of one contractor who by going to court, we had paid eight-point-something billion over a bill of Kshs9 billion. The balance was about Kshs300 million, but he was awarded by the court, another extra Kshs 3 billion. I then ask myself when a judge is sitting there and awarding an extra Kshs3 billion, where does that judge think the money will come from and how are we going to build the roads? Mr. Speaker, Sir, there must be legislative guidance and it is incumbent upon the Ministry to provide this. Secondly, we should be adhering to the procurement law because that is where the problem is. Parliament provides the budget in the beginning and then the agency is told to procure based on that budget and towards the end of the year, through the supplementary budget, the budget is reduced. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we started this year with a development budget at Kshs63 billion, but we are now ending at Kshs46 billion. There is still a cap of twenty-something billion shillings. For the last eight years, we have been providing Kshs5 billion when the agencies are asking for Kshs100 billion. We provide Kshs100 billion at the beginning of the financial year and then we create a gap. That is the question everyone should ask themselves. How come despite the procurement law, we have this level of pending bills and yet our procurement law says that we should not procure what we do not have? This is the challenge we have. As we continue, the biggest challenge in this Government is to deal with the nearly Kshs700 billion of pending bills in the road sector. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I do not know which formula we will use to sort it out in the next four years. However, I promise, and the promise of the Government is to find ways of reducing it significantly so that people can get at least 3,000 kilometres of the roads completed. On the other issue of maintenance, the same situation applies. I will come back with a policy position on how to increase resources for maintenance and discuss it with you. For example, on the Chwele Road, Lwakhakha Road and the ones in Laikipia and all other roads, all under low volume ‘C’, we are negotiating with the National Assembly, so that the Constituency Roads Committee can vacate the 10 per cent that is for KeRRA to come back to maintain those roads, to start with. Mr. Speaker, Sir, even if that will not be enough, at least, we will salvage the worst roads in the country. If we do not do so, we will build from zero. Some of the contracts were given in 2017 and now those contractors have pending bills and have not completed those roads. The parts they started with are finished, but the other parts are not. That is a real problem. This was my position as a Senator and as the Senate Majority Leader in this House and it remains my position as a Cabinet Secretary. There is no Senator who does not have a mandate over oversight of any function in the national Government in his role of representation of the people of his county. The Senator should not sound like he is apologetic for raising road issues in his county. He is not and that is why I am here. If he did not have the mandate, I would not be here. The point is that the questions raised by Senators or Members of the National Assembly are treated equally when it comes to responding to the status of the roads. In"
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