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{
    "id": 1152548,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1152548/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 91,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sakaja",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13131,
        "legal_name": "Johnson Arthur Sakaja",
        "slug": "johnson-arthur-sakaja"
    },
    "content": "actually do roads. Either way, when you give contracts to the “big people”, they use young people to do the work. The people who know how to do those roads are actually our youth. Mr. Speaker, Sir, contracts like garbage collection in Nairobi City County will be for young people. Contracts like building some roads in some of our estates will be for our young people. Cleaning up our areas will be for our young people. This is because when you give somebody with a big kitambi, he sits in his office and does nothing. He does not drive that vehicle or forklift. Instead, he gets young people who understand how to use that machinery. Let us build enterprises. Let us build our Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). That is one of the strong pillars that we believe in in Kenya Kwanza that we must do. If you look at the four pillars, we have agriculture, MSMEs, affordable housing and universal healthcare. When it comes to housing, who should do the doors and windows and plumbing works? If you look at the project in Ngara, it is our young people who did it. However, we are still giving tenders to huge tenderprenuers who exploit young people. This is one of the most important pieces of legislation we have in our country, but the most abused. I would like to appeal to every leader in this country, especially in the Executive. No matter which political party or divide, the future of our country will be guaranteed when we ensure our young people and women are mainstreamed right into the centre of public procurement. It is not a reserve of a few. That is how we create equality of opportunities. We cannot have cohesion or umoja that people are talking about without equalizing opportunities for all. No matter who you are and where you are from, you should have a chance or fair shot at life that you can actually do business with the Government. We expect that Kenyans will vote in leaders who are forward-thinking in that way. The specific provision is 157(5) that states that an accounting officer of a procuring entity shall, when processing procurement, reserve a prescribed percentage of its procurement budget, which shall not be less than 30 per cent to the disadvantaged group and comply with the provisions of the Act and the regulations in respect of preferences and reservations. The other important law which we passed in this House and was sponsored by Sen. Farhiya and I, is the Prompt Payment Bill. After you have given them the contracts and the tenders, pay them promptly. I know of young people who suffered so much. For instance, when there was the UNCTAD meeting and then the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) fiasco, there is a lady who committed suicide. There are young people and women who are awarded contracts, but they are not paid. When they are auctioned, they are worse off than before they were given tenders, in the first place. You would rather not have given them because when auctioneers visit them, they are taken further back than where they were before you gave them that tender. I would like to appeal to our brothers and sisters in the National Assembly. Please process that Bill which was passed by the Senate. That is The Prompt Payment Bill. When that is done, I will be happy that my legislative work is done. We are now on this Bill and The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}