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{
    "id": 1110855,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1110855/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 495,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kitui Central, WDM-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Makali Mulu",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1955,
        "legal_name": "Benson Makali Mulu",
        "slug": "benson-makali-mulu"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for this opportunity. I want to start by thanking the Mover and the Seconder of this Bill. They have done justice to the idea of explaining to us what this Bill is all about. Looking at all the clauses, this Bill will be a very important for providing a legal framework for this important sector. This sector has two key stakeholders. It has the landlords and the tenants. What this Bill attempts to do is to ensure that there is order in this sector by ensuring that the interest of the landlord and the interest of the tenant are to some extent balanced. I want to look at this Bill from two perspectives. The issue of the landlord and the issue of the tenants. From the landlord’s side, the landlord is an investor. Being an investor, the driving force is maximisation of the returns in terms of rent. For the landlord to maximise rent, there are things the landlord needs to be sure that will happen in an orderly manner. I think the first thing is to make sure that the contracts they are going to get into with the tenants are very clear and they stipulate the dos and the don’ts. We need to apply this to what is happening currently in the country. This is one messy sector. Landlords have put a lot of money to construct houses and in most cases these are loans or mortgage. Meaning they are being charged interest and at the end of the day they will pay. The expectation is, you will always get tenants who are responsible enough to pay in good time so that at the end of the day, you can actually repay your loans. In a situation where the tenants are not paying rent, the landlords are put in a very awkward position. Some have even gone to an extent of getting these houses auctioned because of non-payment of loans. That is why to me the issue of auctioneers participating in the public participation becomes very important. You realise, at times the landlord is disadvantaged in that you might have tenants whom you do not know personally, in a case where you are using an agent to collect the rent for you. Some of these tenants even take off. They can come to your house and before the end of the month, they take off. You do not know where to find them. In my view, the landlords need to be protected so that at the end of the day, we do not have landlords who invest in this area and their facilities are auctioned and you end up discouraging more investments. It does not mean that we forget about the tenants."
}