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{
    "id": 1108346,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1108346/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 246,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Halake",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13184,
        "legal_name": "Abshiro Soka Halake",
        "slug": "abshiro-soka-halake"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I rise to support the Public Private Partnerships Bill (National Assembly Bills No.6 of 2021). As has been said, this is a timely Bill given the number of infrastructure that we are engaging in as a country and the need for a good legal framework to ensure the risks both to the country and the parties involved. Public private partnerships have come with a lot of contractual obligations and this piece of legislation is timely, especially at this time when there is a lot of borrowing to finance the gaps in our infrastructural demands. While this is a timely piece of legislation, not every project lends itself to a PPP. I hope that we will see in this Bill a robust system of making sure that prioritisation or due diligence on what will qualify for value for money when we go the route of PPP or could benefit from the tradition way of public Government procurement, so that we get value for money. The private sector is for profit and we must make sure our due diligence, prioritisation and our way of doing business in the PPPs takes into account what lends itself to PPPs and what does not, what would be value for money because of PPPs or what we do not have the capacity or resources to go the PPP route. The benefits of PPPs cannot be gainsaid. It will give us access to private sector expertise, resources, technology transfer and ensuring that local capacities are built. Once built, the country will have a transfer of technology and capacities we did not have before. We need to manage the risk of ensuring that Government remains responsible to its citizens even within a PPP arrangement. At the end of the day, it is the Government that is responsible to its citizen, as opposed to the private sector who then, perhaps, is in it for profit. Madam Speaker, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir--- I am sorry, at this time, in the evenings, it is usually ‘Madam Speakers’ in the seat. In transfer of risks, we need to make sure that the private sector does not transfer the risks to the public sector. In the past, I have read a couple of PPP style arrangements and wondered who was there to take care of the citizens of Kenya, to whom all the risks had been transferred. As we sat in the Committee on Lands Environment and Natural Resources, we went through myriads of complaints in some of the infrastructure projects. We wondered where the buck stops. We would urge and make sure that this Bill is robust in the way of ensuring that the Government remains responsible and accountable to its citizens within this PPP arrangement. One of the things I have seen and I am happy about is that the county governments have been included in this. As has been seen in the development world, the local governments would benefit from the PPP arrangement at the local level, especially if the right financing and bond is taken up by the national Government, as was done by the US through the Obama administration. Even though I have not studied this Bill in detail, it is the opportunity for renegotiation. The provisions for the opportunity for renegotiation must be robust in this Bill. Since PPP are such that they are heavy in"
}