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{
    "id": 136012,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/136012/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 255,
    "type": "other",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "are serious working Ministries. The work by the Ministry of Energy has also touched every corner of this country. Having said that, for us to be focused to work and deliver our mandate, we must focus our energies on issues that affect the nation and stop politicking. Most of the time we engage in time wasting. When we talk about the importance of roads, we cannot attain the objectives of Vision 2030 if our road network is not well connected in terms of providing services. The road network can only be equated to the nerve system of the body from where there is sensitivity and blood flow to every part of the body for us to be functional. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think it is important to appreciate and give a little more support to this Ministry. We know that this budget was tightly managed. We are going through economic hard times but I think in even that, there is an opening available. We should support this Ministry to provide services. The most interesting thing about what is happening in the current budget provisions is that we can now identify what goes where as opposed to previous times when if we demanded services from particular Ministries, you would be told: “We shall do it when funds are available”. During those days, those funds were never available. Some of us who were sitting in the Opposition those days suffered painfully because of imbalances in terms of resource distribution, fairness and equity. Therefore, the transparent way in which the Budget has been done suggests that each Kenyan will benefit from this kind of delivery. We have realized that the Ministry has gone further to develop three boards; Kenya Rural Road Authority, Kenya National Highway Authority and Kenya Urban Roads Authority. I want to plead with the Minister to make sure that the mandates of these three bodies is streamlined so that we avoid duplication and inefficiency in terms of service delivery. I appreciate that some of their mandate is cross cutting. We need to know who stops where so that we also stop wastage. Let me hope that this is not one way in which we will waste public resources in terms of bringing up bodies which may not deliver their mandate. Critically, it is important to decentralize these functions and be able to hold each one of them accountable. In terms of the performance contracts, we need to review them in short term so that we appreciate whether their relevance is still there or if we need to do away with them or if we need to give them more capacity. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, somebody talked about the pending bills. In my other life as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, I found out that pending bills are usually a waste of Government resources. Somebody can bring a wheelbarrow, park it on the roadside, refuse to pull it away from the site and continue to accumulate bills on taxpayers’ money. In my other life as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, I realized that there was an element of wastage of resources. You would find that this person has not removed it from site for five to six years and interest accumulates on the side of the Government and the Government pays for that. Due to this complicated position, you will find that the contractor is paid for doing nothing. We need to have value for our money. We need to know which road is used for what. We need to identify the priority roads and the value they add to our nation. Those days when we used to set up roads for purposes of political expediency are gone. We must take our roads to a state where Kenyans get value for their money. Therefore, the pending bills issue should be closed once and for all so that Kenyans can get value for money."
}