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{
    "id": 1202219,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1202219/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 110,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Westlands, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Tim Wanyonyi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me a chance to also talk about the President’s Speech. First, I wish to thank the people of Westlands for electing me for the third time in a row. It was not easy because I had gone to contest for the gubernatorial position and when I came back, they still had trust in me. I do not take it for granted. For the first time, I also won in all the polling stations in Westlands. That is no mean feat. Secondly, I want to congratulate you together with Hon. Gladys Boss, who was my Chair in the last Parliament, for being elected Speaker and Deputy Speaker, respectively. I will now talk about the Address by the President. He spoke about Members amending Standing Orders to allow the Cabinet Secretaries to come to the Floor of the House and articulate the Government policies and answer to questions from Members. When the People of Kenya decided to have a new Constitution, they wanted to have a pure presidential system. This was to ensure that the Executive does not belong to this House. I believe that Cabinet Secretaries can continue to come and articulate the government policies in the committees but not on the Floor of the House. That is because, as the Deputy President has coined the word “State capture”, it will amount to the “executive capture” in Parliament. We would like Parliament to operate without arm-twisting or intimidation by the Executive being part of this House. We believe the Government can still function without the Cabinet Secretaries having to come here. The idea was in the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), but it was rejected. It is not yet time for us to allow that because this is not a hybrid system. I also want to highlight what the President said about the Constituency Development Fund (CDF). It was the first devolved fund in this country. Hon. Speaker, I am sure that when you were a Member of Parliament, you experienced the benefits of CDF. It has done so much work and it has reached the furthest corner of this country and the lowest unit of our economy. The impact is out there, and it is known. We have seen what the NG-CDF has done. Parents have no problem with children going to school because it pays school fees. It has developed school infrastructure and many other things. For those who are hell-bent on killing the NG- CDF, I believe that with the support of the President and all of us, we will make sure that the NG-CDF stays alive. It will continue to exist so that we can use it to support our people in development, schools, security and many other things that it has done. Hon. Speaker, the President also spoke about affordable housing. This is one of the things that I wanted to do as governor of Nairobi because Nairobi City County is the owner of most of the land in Nairobi. We thought of partnering with the private sector to build affordable housing for our people, a replica of Soweto in South Africa, where we would have affordable and decent houses with all amenities available to the people. The Government can come in and continue the programme that was started by former President Uhuru. I am very sure that we shall do away with those informal settlements in Nairobi and make the residents home-owners by creating cheap credit facilities and providing affordable land. The developers can now construct much cheaper houses. People can then use mortgages to purchase houses. With that, many people would own homes in Nairobi. At the moment, 80 per cent of the people who live in Nairobi do not own homes. They are owned by just a few people. As a representative of the people of Nairobi, we know the kind of life that people live in informal settlements. When we have this kind of arrangement of affordable housing, it will bring decency and dignity to the people who live in informal settlements, as well as ownership of…"
}