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{
    "id": 136640,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/136640/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 311,
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    "content": "not effective. We talked about the new standard gauge of the railway system. However, as a Committee, we could not understand the fact that there is no funding for that aspect which would enable us have a new gauge railway line from Mombasa through Nairobi all the way to Uganda. So, we are serious on having the new gauge railway line. We need to have funds for this so that the Minister can undertake this duty. We also observed that there is decrease in funding on the railway sector from Kshs693 million to Kshs595 million. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of railway transport, if more funds could be available we could also have standard gauge railway lines from Lamu as proposed. This would open the corridor to Southern Sudan and Ethiopia and link up other important areas. As the Minister plans ahead, this is one area he needs to look into. We also made observation on the issue of shipping. I want to say here that there is need for new and capital intensive shipping cranes and hoisting machinery, to reduce the turnover time at the ports. I am sure the Minister is very conversant with this area and he should look into it to make sure there is improvement. On the issue of airports, we made the observation that our airports should be in the category of international standards. As a Committee, we are happy that expansion work is going on. We need to improve and expand our international airport at Nairobi. We also need to improve and modernize the one in Mombasa and Kisumu. With a good transport system, as I said earlier, we would expect good economic prosperity. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the issue of ferries, we found out that the ferries that we have in operation are very old. Therefore, they need modernization. There is also the issue of purchase of new ferries which had some problems. We discussed this with the Minister for Transport and I hope he is taking action on that. In principle, we said that the Ministry should move fast to make sure that whoever was involved in this corrupt arrangement is punished. The process of purchasing the new ferries as specified earlier should be concluded. We also made observation that some parastatals are commercial. They make money and declare dividends to the Government yet we are funding them. The Minister should encourage parastatals under the Ministry to make sure that they are self reliant in order that we do not take money from the Exchequer to support their operations. There are some areas which the Committee felt should be funded in order to operate. One of these areas is the development of mass light railway transport system, especially in Nairobi. There is no funding for this and we need it to ensure transport in the city operates effectively. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also observed that we need money for the development of the new transport corridor; that is from Lamu to Ethiopia and Southern Sudan. Apart from talking about this corridor line and all that, there is no funding for this item. The third item which the Committee felt should be considered is the Kenya Railways Post-Concessioning Rescue Support Programme. The Minister assured us that the concession is likely to come to an end very soon and, therefore, we need to have something in place for that. We also need funding for expansion of the Nyaribo and Nyangusu airports. We also need funds for Kibera By-pass so as to deviate traffic not to pass through Kibera. We also need the development of the Mombasa-Malaba Standard gauge railway line which I talked about earlier."
}