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{
    "id": 1031451,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1031451/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 406,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "will eventually mean that the goods will be cheaper, to have safety of our cargo as it is transported and to preserve our roads which were used for heavy transportation. On implementation, what eventually came out is that there were a lot more disadvantages than what was realised. In fact, people were forced, the businesses were being forced. What then happened is that the truckers were declared redundant. The business associated with trucking in Mombasa, along the way and at the port were all affected. There were losses of jobs. This should have been expected. To impose this on the businesspeople and therefore expose them to these disadvantages was totally unnecessary. I therefore congratulate the Member who raised this issue and the Committee that has worked on it. I saw somewhere in the Report that the compulsion was because of COVID-19. That was totally untrue. Hon. Nassir, popularly known as “the incoming Governor”, had actually brought this thing and we discussed it before COVID-19. So on that statement, wherever it came from, the Executive was not correct. Kenya is a free market economy. Whatever we do, whatever projects we bring, must go by that. Therefore, in my view, the only way for the SGR to achieve the things we wanted it to achieve is to make it competitive so that businessmen will choose it on the basis that it is cheaper and more efficient. There will be no other way. If that is done, even the other businesses will adjust. If the businesspeople realise it is cheaper and use it, it will be gradual and there will be adjustment and the economy will find how to absorb the other people in all other businesses. Therefore, I support this Report. Try to make it competitive by supporting the reduction of levy and also allowing those who can do the last mile infrastructure at their own cost do it. I think that will make it more competitive. Use the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) to finance the SGR project, renegotiating the loan but more importantly, efficiency. There is one thing that did not come out. When the SGR was conceived, it was to go all the way to Kisumu and Eldoret, into Uganda and Rwanda. If you conceive a project of that magnitude and you reduce it by half, you cannot get the benefit that you expected. Therefore, in my view, the first thing we need to do is to complete the project to where we wanted it, increase the business and then we can start getting the benefits we expected. I know it is ending in Mombasa and there is an effort to improve the metre- gauge railway from Mombasa to western Kenya. But again, it will cause an exchange in Mombasa where goods that have come by SGR have to be changed into a metre-gauge railway. I suspect that will not really in itself make it as successful as you would have wanted it. So, my view is that we should strive to make it efficient and cheaper and let the market forces prevail. With that, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I support."
}