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{
"id": 1353957,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1353957/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Murkomen",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 440,
"legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
"slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I understand the pressure of time, so I will be quick. On the issue of Suswa-Ngong by my friend, Sen. Olekina, I feel like I am back to Senate. I was assuming you are there and I am here. The connection between Ngong and Suswa is serious. We have only three kilometers to go. We have negotiated with the contractor, Zhongmei. They should be mobilizing now to go on site in a week or so, they should go back on site. That will be a connection from Suswa to Ngong to Emali. That will be a short cut. You will not have to come all the way to Nairobi City if you are going to Machakos. When we do, as I said earlier, before you came in, Ilasi in Njukini, it will now help us to go to Taita. You will also be able to go to Holili and then to Arusha. There is room for doing that connection, it will be completed. We will also put a weighbridge, because as soon as we complete that road, the trailers will want to cut our short cut. That road will only be for passengers and smaller vehicles. The trailers will continue using the normal road. On the question by Hon. Veronica Maina, it is true that the work is cut out for me. However, this is teamwork in the sense that, as an administration, we have come to Government at a time that we have to employ very heavy fiscal discipline. As you do so, the sector that has suffered most is the infrastructure; a sector that was neglected from the last term. Therefore, we are asking ourselves, how best can you deliver this? That is why you see the negotiations we are having with development partners and so forth. There is hope. I see light at the end of the tunnel. In this coming financial year, we will be able to return most of our contractors on site, and we will complete the 3,500 kilometres remaining of the 10,000 kilometres that we promised the people of Kenya as the Jubilee Administration in 2013. Based on our policies, I believe this administration will deliver the remaining balance of that road. I am tasked with that responsibility. That is why I take personal initiative to speak to some of these contractors, negotiate with them, implore and request them to go on site. I will give you the example of the road of Thika-Magumu. I had to sit over and over, despite the termination that was almost to ensue, and the contractor accepted to go on site. We are now past 30 kilometres of that road. Based on your question, so many of the Mau Mau Roads are yet to be delivered. I assure you, Sen. Veronica, that road is in the programmes that are likely to start in the next three months, based on those negotiations we are having because most of them are delivered by our friends from the Chinese Government. With the administration helping us, we should be able to make progress. Lastly, for many years, there has been a clamour for airport charter that brings together all the players at the airport. The problem is that the Ministry of Roads and Transport and the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) sometimes takes a beating for things that are done by the immigration officer or the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) officer at the airport."
}