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{
    "id": 1372243,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1372243/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 288,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Osotsi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13588,
        "legal_name": "Osotsi Godfrey Otieno",
        "slug": "osotsi-godfrey-otieno"
    },
    "content": "boards of those water companies to the county governments. This has had a great effect on the issue of the provision of water. One example is in a county where water service provision was being managed was in your county, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. The other one was Murang’a County where cartels were running water companies without the involvement of county government. We have been able to take it back to the county government and made a raft of recommendations on how these water companies should run. When I read this Bill, all those efforts that we have made as a Committee are going to waste because this Bill tries to do the contrary. Out of the challenges that we noted when we were looking at the audit reports, we decided as a Committee to do an inquiry on water investments in our counties. We invited the regional water works companies, including WASREB, WASPA which is an association of water service providers, the Ministry the National Treasury and the Attorney General and this Friday we are going to have an engagement as a Committee with the Council of Governors (CoG) Committee on water where seven governors are going to attend. In this meeting, we are going to discuss what are the possible solutions of dealing with these challenges in the water sector. However, I am surprised that this Bill is being rushed in this House whereas a Committee of this House is seeking solutions to bring to this House for debate. This Bill is running contrary to what we are doing. I will give you an example. We have regional water companies. We have the Rift valley Water Works, Central Rift Water Works, North Rift Water Works, Northern Kenya Water Works, Lake Victoria North and Lake Victoria South Water Works, Coast Water, Tana Athi, and Athi Water. I want to say in this House following our engagement with these waterworks companies. These regional water works companies are a waste to this country. What they do is to sit there to get proposals to get funding from donors. Once the money comes, they build water projects without the engagement of counties and then, they purport to hand over those water projects to counties through a mere letter. In those agreements, governors are not involved in negotiating those agreements. It is only the National Treasury. The Ministry of Water is involved, but the counties are not involved. Then they come and build water works then they leave them there idle or they hand them over to themselves. We have found out that the loans which are in billions of money that those water companies took have never been repaid. However, what this Bill is doing is simply giving those companies more power. More powers in bulk water supply and even in doing what county water service providers are supposed to be doing. As Sen. Sifuna said, we are going to see a situation where water service providers in the counties will die; people are going to lose employment. Now, effectively, it will mean that the regional water companies which belong to the National Government will be doing 100 per cent work of providing water in our counties."
}