Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 136026,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/136026/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 269,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mwathi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 104,
        "legal_name": "Peter Mungai Mwathi",
        "slug": "peter-mwathi"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Vote fairly reluctantly. I will support it because the Ministry has done something. In so doing, I would like to quickly point out the fact that it is very important for the Ministry and Minister, for that matter, to know the importance that road infrastructure has in the lives of Kenyans. Even though I know people cry about tarmac roads, there are certain roads that must be passable in order to access some areas. However, I would like to say that if the Ministry undertakes to upgrade a road to a certain level, for example, tarmac it, it should do so. I do not want to be selfish but since I do not have a choice other than talking about my road; let the road be tarmacked. Let us not have a road that is half way tarmacked and before it is completed, the initial section of the road has developed potholes. I will give a road in my constituency, as an example of probably what happens in Kenya. I have visited the Ministry many times and brought Questions here about this road. I have tried to befriend the former Minister and Assistant Minister by speaking very well because this section of the road is not complete. All this does not seem to yield anything. I will try hard next time. However, all said and done, if I were in the West, for example, Britain, I would immediately tell my constituents to take the Ministry of Roads to court. This is because these people live in dusty conditions. They have now started developing breathing-related complications. They cannot air their clothes because by the time they get them from the line, they are full of mud. Why do we subject our people to these conditions? If you do a road, it is only fair - and I know it is provided for in the contract because I have been in that Ministry for a long time – that you water the road so that you do not subject people to conditions that are not good. So, as the Minister looks at the roads programme that he has, if it is a tarmac road, let it be tarmacked to the end. If it is a murram road, let it be so. The Ministry should not do the road half way because we will always complain that the work is incomplete. This is true anyway. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to talk about the DRCs. I have realised that the Ministry has allocated some money through the DRCs and some through the local authorities. In certain instances, you will find that there are work plans that are superimposed on each other. So, if there is collusion among the officers, you will find that the same road is funded through the DRC and at the local authority level. I do not know why this has to happen. So, it is important that if a road is being covered by the DRC, then that should be so. The same case should apply to those covered by the local authorities. However, the DRC is doing very well in this case. The only thing the Minister should do in order to streamline this, is to ensure that there is monitoring and evaluation. This is because the local District Roads Engineer is the boss of everything. With those few remarks, I beg to support the Motion."
}