HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 118553,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/118553/?format=api",
"text_counter": 231,
"type": "other",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "agricultural land, and you want to practice agriculture, there must be some limit on how much you can subdivide that land in order to keep it productive for the good interests and greater good of the people of Kenya. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another area where this policy will fail, if we do not address it, is the manner in which our local authorities are run. In the old days, we could never build a shop or a commercial structure without a licence. That licence would inform you that the local authority had zoned and demarcated an area designated for a market or town. The local authority would have found it easy and possible for its employees to cost-effectively go and collect taxes. The local authority would then be able to provide for services. What do we see these days? Anybody with a parcel of land that ends by the roadside, simply, opens up in the morning and starts constructing a commercial structure, including shops, kiosks, hotels, inns, et cetera . There is absolutely no regulation. The problem then arises: How can the local authorities, utility companies and the Government provide services? If you have built your inn on a highway where the nearest settlement is ten kilometres away, will the Government afford to come and give you a police station to guard your property or guests? Will the Government afford to, cost-effectively, bring you electricity ten kilometres away, alone? Will the Government afford to bring you piped water ten kilometres away? This will not work. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want to call upon the local authorities to support this very noble idea of reforms by also doing their job. I went to Nigeria, a country that we sometimes think has not got as much discipline as many African countries. There was a Minister called âEl-Rufaiâ. He was responsible for the City of Abuja. He was the mayor. He was a Minister sitting in Cabinet. This Minister even demolished a hotel the size of Six-Eighty Hotel here in Nairobi, which was built by a President, because it was built on reserve land. That Minister demolished many structures in Abuja, belonging to senators, Ministers and Government to restore sanity in Nigeria. We can do better here. If it is me or you, or any of my colleagues, who has offended the law by recklessly erecting structures in unplanned manner, law must come down on us heavily, so that we restore sanity in the management of our public affairs. Anything less is what we are crying about. That is impunity. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, you know that you need to have the local authorities to license you, but you do not care. You know that you need the Planning Department to approve your drawing, but you do not care. You know that you need to go to the utility services providing companies to ask them whether it is cost-effective for them to provide you with services, but you do not care. You know that you need security, but you do not care. When you are attacked because you are very far from the police station, you start crying. We must embrace behavioural change. We must change our attitudes in the manner in which we run and manage our properties. This policy also talks about the issue of idle public land. I agree that idle public land must attract some taxes, but I hope that the Minister will not extend this tax to the villagers, who leave their land fallow because they want to manage their environment. In this country, we have a terrible misconception of people who think that if you have not tilled your land, then it is idle. You may leave your land fallow because you want to conserve the environment. If such land is in private hands, the Minister will misadventure"
}