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{
    "id": 1372688,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1372688/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 260,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. M. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13162,
        "legal_name": "Moses Otieno Kajwang'",
        "slug": "moses-otieno-kajwang"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, I tell my people it is not okay to be bathing in the lake or rivers. It is not okay to be washing utensils and washing clothes in lakes and rivers. In fact, even cattle should not be drinking from lakes and rivers because they end up getting all sorts of infections, and in many cases, we have conflicts with crocodiles and hippopotamuses and all sorts of animals. An organised Government and a civilized society should ensure that water is provided to the nearest point where citizens need it. The nearest point, most of the time is a tap in someone's house. That is what civilization looks like. We cannot glorify poverty and call it culture; that, when you see my people bathing in Lake Victoria, you come and you find it is like a nudist colony because people are used to bathing that way. It cannot be normal. It cannot be okay. The Government should provide water to the last mile, to the door of that woman and pastoralist, so that his cattle can have water for their sustenance. For us to do this, we must strengthen Water Service Providers (WSPs). We should not weaken them the way this amendment is trying to weaken them. We must also explore ways through which WSPs that are too small to make sense, can merge with neighbouring water service providers. Again, one piece of legislation that we have been slow in enacting is a legal framework to anchor in law the regional economic blocs, because I believe that some WSPs could coalesce around regional economic blocs so that they can become bigger and take advantage of those economies of scale, and they will be able to shed off some of those management issues that keep cropping up whenever they appear before the County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee. Finally, Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company was at some point in our lifetime an exemplary organisation, which was a subject of case studies. When I was doing my Masters in public policy, one of the case studies that I had to memorise was the case study on Nairobi Water and Sewage Company and how they reduced non-revenue water. I wonder what happened. The same Nairobi Water and Sewage Company today is barely solvent and has become an employment bureau for cronies of those people who are in power. Water service provision is possible to be delivered to the quality standards that the Constitution envisages. The problem is over politicisation, and that we want to dominate and we want to control resources. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard Services,Senate."
}