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"id": 1334223,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1334223/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Kipchumba Murkomen",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
"slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
},
"content": "than the money allocated to KeRRA under the Road Maintenance Levy through the (RMLF). If the distribution of those resources to various agencies as budgeted is unfair, then neither KeRRA nor the Ministry will be blamed because we are constitutionally bound to implement the decisions of this House without injecting a scintilla of doubt. The third indicator of the advertised projects is where we have emergency cases, like the situation with El Nino . The Ministry allocated resources from the emergency fund or other sources to address those emergencies. The emergencies arise as works are tendered by any road agency for the purpose of repair. Those activities are specific to network reinstatement and the geographical location in question; therefore, generalised comparisons with other counties, for example, are invalid. Such projects also include security roads aimed at improving security operations where we have cases of emergencies, such as in the case of El Nino, where the Ministry will allocate resources either from the Contingency Fund or from other sources, including those budgeted by this House. Such allocation should not be misconstrued as an unfair distribution of resources because they will be addressing what in law is called forcemajeure, otherwise known as the act of God. Fourth is the aggregated funding towards constituency roads identified by the CRC. A number, and this is important for emphasis, of the Constituency Roads Committees have gained experience and have found that combining various approved budgetary allocations into one bigger project tendered as one package is best. The consequence of this approach was that the project size tends to exceed the regional threshold of Ksh10 million, necessitating KeRRA to conduct the procurement at a national level. If those aggregated initiatives are extracted in isolation from their procurement notice and used in general comparison with CRCs that have not adopted the same approach, errors will result. The notorious constituencies for this type of cost are those in urban and peri-urban areas, such as Kikuyu Constituency, where the Leader of the Majority Leader comes from. When adverts appear nationally, people tend to question why those areas have been considered with big projects when, in reality, they have aggregated their resources into one project, unlike many other constituents, especially in rural areas, which receive equal amounts to the same constituencies but choose to allocate them to projects of less than Ksh10 million and, therefore, advertised at the regional level. Some of the Members of Parliament here guiding their CRCs decide that instead of funding roads of less than Ksh10 million, they aggregate their money to Ksh20 million, Ksh30 million, or Ksh40 million and decide that it be advertised at the national level by KeRRA because of the constitutional and legal imperatives for advertisement. As a result, you will find, for example, Kikuyu Constituency in the advert that Hon. Mbui shared; they are there advertising a project, but the other constituencies across the country where they advertise their roads below Ksh10 million cannot appear in the national advert because they will appear in the regions where advertisements occur. Again, taking it in isolation would appear as though one constituency is getting more than the other and yet, it is just about how the constituency is utilising those resources. Hon. Speaker, 50 is a misinterpretation of project costs as an annual budget. This is where, again, the question of Hon. Mbui is extremely important. Part of the misinformation associated with the KeRRA notice of 29th September 2023 is insinuation that the multi-year global cost estimate for various projects was, in fact, a budget allocation for a single year and, thus, an indication of a skewed allocation of scarce resources. While this incorrect interpretation is easily detected and corrected through cross-reference to approved budgets by this House and approved annual road work plans, I take this opportunity to assure the House once, again, that the allegations of skewed resource allocation were utterly without basis. In fact, I have been baffled by the utterances both inside and outside these Chambers by elected representatives of the people who have been given enormous mandate and responsibility to do The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
}