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{
"id": 1072121,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1072121/?format=api",
"text_counter": 369,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Homa Bay CWR, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Gladys Wanga",
"speaker": {
"id": 590,
"legal_name": "Gladys Atieno Nyasuna",
"slug": "gladys-atieno-nyasuna"
},
"content": "This Bill will enable Kenya to achieve better quality infrastructure and reduce reliance on the Exchequer for development, and hence reduce the need for seeking loans to undertake development projects. It will also facilitate Ministries and the county governments to provide expertise to the PPP agenda. Most importantly, in Clause 77 there is introduction of local content. As the Leader of the Majority has alluded to, Kenyans might think about PPP as a foreign concept or a concept to attract foreign investors. However, you will be surprised at how much money even Kenyans themselves have and do not know where to invest it. So, the provision for local content is such that even if you have a foreign company or person coming in to carry out a programme, there will be a mandatory room for local content. That is very important because it will enable Kenyans to get jobs and create business opportunities. There is now a provision for a fully-fledged Directorate of PPP so that it can attract good staff. What happened previously, in 2013, the law provided for what are called; “Nodes”, which are PPP units in every contracting authority. So, if you went to, for example, the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA), it would have to have a PPP unit, and these were called nodes in every contracting authority. Because of the expertise required to close deals quickly, this Bill seeks to create a directorate to attract the skills that we need to close deals. So, the directorate will take the place of all the nodes that we have in the various contracting authorities. The Bill seeks to reduce the bureaucracy by reducing the statutory approvals by the PPP Committee from 12 to three. Previously, you would have to go through 12 sets of approvals. They would tell you: “Come back another day. Is this your proposal? Okay, go. Is this a feasibility study report? Okay, go to the Committee.” The Committee, as set out in the Bill, consists of Principal Secretaries (PSs). You have the PS for the National Treasury, the PS for Planning, and so on, up to 10 PSs. By the time you put all these people together and get a date when they are available to meet to look through your feasibility study, you will be staring at a nightmare. So, that number has been reduced from 12 to three. The Bill now limits the role of the Cabinet to policy direction, and not contract approval. So, the Cabinet will be giving guidelines. The Committee and the directorate will be sealing the deals or concluding the contracts. The Bill also defines county governments as contracting authorities. It provides for representation of the Council of Governors (CoG) in the Committee. The reason is that a lot of these projects actually go on in counties. Some of them fall within the mandates of county governments, for example, hospitals or sometimes water projects. The Bill provides for a procurement process for PPPs which are not covered in the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Act, 2015. I will speak a bit on this provision on what the Committee’s thoughts were. The Bill provides for contract timelines which are not covered in the Public Private Partnerships Act. The Leader of the Majority Party has alluded to this aspect. Apart from providing the time within which you get feedback after submitting your proposal, there is also provision for timelines for the time within which, after you get into a PPP, you must begin the contract. There is a PPP that was signed for the Rironi-Nakuru-Mau Summit Highway – the one that we signed with a French firm. Up to date, they want to come back for renegotiation upon renegotiation without starting the project. So, one of the amendments that we are proposing in the Bill is to have a period within which you have to begin the project. We are proposing a six- 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"
}