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{
    "id": 1169598,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1169598/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 227,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cherargei",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13217,
        "legal_name": "Cherarkey K Samson",
        "slug": "cherarkey-k-samson"
    },
    "content": "To make it even more painful, the contractor of Nairobi Expressway is demanding Kshs9 billion to renovate the Old Mombasa Road. That is how corruption thrives. There is no other name for corruption. They are now demanding Kshs9 billion for the old Mombasa Road, which is in a pathetic state. The drainage is poor and renovations have not been done. The size of the road has been reduced because they have built beams and pillars, yet the contractor has the audacity of demanding an additional Kshs9 billion, to renovate the road that they destroyed. That is how you loose public money in a country. There is no any other explanation. The Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing, Urban Development and Public Works must tell the country if this project will run to Kshs100 billion. It is now Kshs81 billion and they have demanded an additional Kshs9 billion. Madam Temporary Speaker, on a lighter note, somebody was sharing on social media that if you looked at traffic, everybody was in the old Mombasa Road, whereas there is no traffic on the Nairobi Expressway. It shows you that the economy is doing badly because people cannot pay toll fees. We raised issues the other day here about the design. The Nairobi Expressway has no exits within the City. It is only at the Museum Hill and Bunyala roundabout. However, there are no exits within the CBD, and this is very critical. Madam Temporary Speaker, you might be flying into the country and rushing to come to the House. Where will you exit? You will have to go up to the Museum Hill where there is traffic. This example that the Committee has used should not be used in future. Finally, on e-procurement, I agree with the Mover, Sen. Farhiya, that we need to encourage e-procurement and ensure that when tenders are awarded money must be there and they should link with IFMIS. That is the reason we have pending bills approaching Kshs120 billion. Nandi County Government has a pending bill of Kshs2 billion. What should we do? The pending bill for the national Government is worse. Madam Temporary Speaker, there are many Kenyans walking in the streets, who have gone bankrupt. They are stressed and under depression because their mistake was taking an LPO to do a project of the county government or national Government, but they have not been paid up to date. We must agree that e-procurement will become a solution in terms of awarding tenders in county governments and national Government, so that we deal with this monster called pending bills. When they take the Local Supply Orders (LSOs) and Local Purchase Orders (LPOs) to banks, the banks continue to levy interest on those loans that they gave to finance county projects. Madam Temporary Speaker, counties were set up in 2013. Do not be surprised that even Mombasa County still owes someone ten years down the line. This someone has borrowed money from a bank with his house or land as collateral and security. As a nation, we must agree that it is important that we move to e-procurement, which should then be linked to the Integrated Finance Management and Information System (IFMIS). This will ensure that county governments or the national Government give tenders only when there is money. Looking at the reports, my position still remains the same. As I did in 2019, I also do in 2022; there is no need to raise the public debt ceiling. It is because the cost of"
}