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"id": 1072104,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1072104/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kipipiri, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Amos Kimunya",
"speaker": {
"id": 174,
"legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
"slug": "amos-kimunya"
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"content": "Mandera, there will be some provision for using local content so that the local community also feels a sense of ownership in the project. I do not want to belabor the point but I just highlighted those four items to see the difference we have between the 2013 and the 2017 versions. So, this particular Bill is an improvement. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, this Bill also proposes timelines on key project processes and stages for a more efficient and predictable project development environment. This is critical because of the need for that predictability. For those of you who may be in the know, discussions over this Uhuru Highway Overpass began way back in 2004 and we are now in 2021. We are talking of 17 years ago. We wasted 17 years in debate: one group came, another one went away and, of course, the cost of the project escalated while the benefits delayed. I believe there are Members who were talking of the traffic \"cham\" on Mombasa Road because of some of these things, yet we could have decongested all these things by the time we were doing Thika Road. In fact, we are supposed to have done it in a seamless way, that is, Thika Road all the way to the Overpass. Right now we know what has happened. We had settled for a road with some grass and trees, but now they have all been uprooted. It is because they were put in the wrong place and we cannot continue like that. Timelines will be inculcated into that. I do hope by the time we finish some of these things, people will be now enticed to go to Lamu. The Government, having done the first three berths, can then get the private sector to say, “Yes, we can come in because we are on a legal framework that is conducive. We can create the extra 15 berths on a PPP and get the Port of Lamu working.” So, I really do not want to get into the details. I believe PPPs are clear cut and everyone understands how they work. The other thing I want to highlight is the Public Private Partnerships Act of 2013, which I am happy I gave input during my time in the National Treasury in 2007. The PPP did not see the light of day until 2013. Despite this Act being in place for eight years, there are only two projects that have achieved financial closure and yet there are lots of projects. These two are Lot No. 33 of the Roads Annuity Programme. Members who were in the previous House will remember that there was an annuity program for roads. Nobody seemed to understand or appreciate why we needed to go that direction. However, one road, the Ngong-Kajiado-Imaroro-Mashuuru Road, which is 91 kilometers, was the only one that was done under that project. It was completed in 2020. It is a lovely road and it is open to public use. The issue with it is that instead of the Government now committing the billions of shillings... The Government does not receive its money on a monthly basis just as we pay our monthly taxes. It needs to figure out and sychronize its development outlays, in terms of funding, with the payments made on a monthly basis. So, instead of borrowing billions of shillings and having to pay over a long time, if somebody can do it, the better. You may then use the road as you pay on a monthly basis! It means you are able to use your monthly income to provide services to mwananchi on a monthly basis. That road is, perhaps, the only one of its kind that has come up. The only other PPP project that I have been talking about is the Nairobi Expressway Project, which is currently under construction. The target completion date is December 2021. Evidence shows that the implementation of the PPP is faced with challenges, which are chiefly attributable to the legal framework because it is not conducive to attract the kind of investors that we want. There is a lot of money out there waiting to be invested. You see people putting it in buildings and everything else. People are moving to countries where there is conducive The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
}