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{
    "id": 1108322,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1108322/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 222,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "The whole water system needs an overhaul. We should put in a leak detection technology which can tell from the even a phone where there is a water leakage or blockage. With the current water system, Nairobi County cannot implement such a technology. We have a lot of piecemeal plastic bandage solutions to problems that can be sorted out with a long term focus. That is why I completely laud this Bill that looks into PPP which the county or National Government cannot afford at a go. Secondly, this Bill also caters for the projects that even though you can afford, by removing from the balance sheet through engaging the private sector to fund and getting it off your balance sheet, you get to increase fiscal space to engage in other areas where you can use your money better. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have friends in the national Government and one of them was telling me that in the building where their entity is housed, it is owned by an individual. It is a private building that the Government pays rent. Different entities of the national Government have taken up about seven floors from that building. The Government pays that individual Kshs65 million per year for one floor alone. If you multiply that figure by the seven floors that are rented by the Government, you will realize that is total wastage. I am happy that this Bill on PPPs is looking at projects that give value for money. There are many investors who I know would be willing to put up buildings for Government and instead of paying the Kshs65 million that the Government is paying per year and in 15 years, that building reverts to the national Government and becomes a property of the Government. I know that many of the people who own the buildings in this city are highly connected and so they will try to frustrate such a move but that is what we need to increase value for money. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this Bill is not before this House for the first time; it has just come in a different version. There has be process before. We started with the PPP of 2013 before which, the only PPP project is now the scandal that we are dealing with of the independent power producers of energy who are now fleecing us when the KENGEN, which is doing a huge percentage of the power is supplying power to us at 5.5 per KWH while the independent ones are charging us almost Kshs100. However, that is the dark past of PPPs. This Bill has had different alterations. There is a version that came to this House in 2017 from the national Government and there were different views and it ended up going into mediation. However, during the mediation stage, the National Treasury realized that there are certain elements that it could introduce so they withdrew the Bill at that time. I think this Bill takes those developments into cognisance and covers those issues. It then reduces bureaucracy in setting up PPPs and sets up a fully-fledged Directorate. It reduces the red tape. Mr. Temporary Speaker, I am glad that the current Director-General, a very young man, who is a good friend, comes from the private sector. He was at StanChart Kenya. You can see the new thinking he is infusing. The other day, he gave me an example of Kisumu County, who went to the National Treasury with certain projects that they want to do. They were shocked because they expected to have meeting after meeting. The Director-General picked up the phone and asked one person to do this and that, and it was approved."
}