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{
    "id": 1372224,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1372224/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 269,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13599,
        "legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
        "slug": "sifuna-edwin-watenya"
    },
    "content": "Fourthly, there is a concern about the loss of revenue by the entities owned by the County Government. Loss of revenue also translates to loss of jobs. Many workers at the county-owned water services companies are concerned that once you shift the bulk of the supply of water to private hands, there is no guarantee that their jobs will continue to be tenable. It is possible that we are staring at job losses and there is no mechanism in the Bill as currently drafted to ringfence or protect the people currently working at the NCWSC, so then after these commercial contracts have been signed and the water is now in private hands and these private companies are now running the water business. Is there any guarantee that the people working for the NCWSC will continue to be in employment? I have not seen that assurance in the Bill. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, lastly on the question of infrastructure that has been touched on by some of my colleagues, the county has already worked and invested a lot of money to put in place the infrastructure, not just for the collection of water, but for the distribution of water as well. Is there any provision in the Bill that assures us that once the commercial companies take over the bulk water they will develop their own distribution infrastructure? Will that infrastructure be flying on top of our existing infrastructure the way the Expressway does? What is it going to do to the infrastructure that already exists? If there are disruptions in service because of the ongoing construction of parallel infrastructure who will bear the cost of repairs? Are we going to be told again as taxpayers in Nairobi to bear the cost of repairs to our existing infrastructure because of construction of new infrastructure just like we were told to bear the cost of repairing the old Mombasa Road? I have not been assured in the current Bill that any of those things have been thought out. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I heard my Governor, Hon. Sakaja, recently in a church service saying that as the City had secured Kshs15 billion for new water projects to increase the capacity of the City County in order to provide this precious commodity. I do not know where that leaves us. Is this Kshs15 billion supposed to be for the people of Nairobi, for the development of the capacity of the NCWSC, or we are doing this to enable private entities to come in as suppliers of water? There is an ongoing project called the Northern Collector Tunnel. At the completion of the first phase, we will be expecting an additional 140 million litres of water per day. That is going to dent the deficit of 220 million litres a day by half. There is still a need for the development of further capacity for the people of Nairobi to enjoy water daily in the quantities they desire. What is going to happen if this Bill becomes law? Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am going to stop there because I am not convinced. In addition to the questions raised by my colleagues about the fact that this is a devolved function, the national Government is overreaching in its attempt to manage the water sector, yet, the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution specifies water and water services as a devolved function. With those few remarks, I stand to oppose the Bill in its entirety. I have heard people telling us that if you are unhappy with the provisions of the Bill, you can bring amendments."
}