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{
    "id": 1373580,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1373580/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 87,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Emurua Dikirr, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Johana Kipyegon",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker. First, I want to thank the Leader of the Majority Party for the great presentation while moving this Bill. I also rise as part of the joint Committee that undertook the responsibility required of us by Article 118 of the Constitution to conduct public participation on a Bill presented before the House. When this Bill was committed to the Departmental Committees on Housing, Urban Planning and Public Works, and Finance and National Planning, we started listening to the people of this Republic. We visited several counties, amongst them Nairobi County, which has the biggest problems of housing. We also visited other counties which people would not ordinarily imagine need housing like Turkana, Wajir, Narok and Kajiado. In all our visits, people expressed that they need affordable houses. Article 43(b) of our Constitution obliges the Government to ensure that its citizens access affordable housing, amongst other recommendations that go with it. It is our responsibility as Parliament to ensure that we actualise Article 43 of our Constitution. In that process, we undertook to listen to the people of this Republic after looking at the Bill. When we went around the country, one finding amongst the many issues raised was that people need these houses. How will they access them equally so that no one is disadvantaged? The other question raised was how the houses will be built. There was also the question of whether it should be a voluntary or compulsory contribution. We also listened to people who talked about how we should levy everyone. Remember that the courts ruled that there was no legal framework in place to ensure equal collection of levies so that it is not discriminatory and that it touches on everybody. Most members of the public asked how collection of levies will be undertaken. The most touching areas that we visited were the slums where people live in deplorable conditions. Any Kenyan who thinks that the Affordable Housing Bill is unnecessary needs to visit the slums. I visited some of those areas for the first time and others for the second time and realised that people need affordable houses. The only problem is how to access them. We even visited the Maasai region where people proposed houses that are modelled after manyattas. We visited Turkana County and the natives wanted houses modelled after their traditional houses. We also visited areas like Tana River County where the natives experience floods and believe that these houses will come in handy to cushion them against floods. They called them cluster houses. They asked to be accorded the opportunity to own houses. I do not want to belabour much on these issues. How can we make those houses accessible to everyone? How will the Government build them? On the issue of levies, people proposed many aspects of levy collection. Some wanted the levies to be collected and to accrue interest. Some proposed that the levy collection should be like the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) model whereby one can access the amount of money they contributed after retirement. People made many proposals. It is upon this House to make recommendations and amendments in areas they deem fit. There was a proposal for the formation of a board in this Bill. Many people asked how the levies collected would be managed, implemented after collection, and how fairness will be achieved. There was a proposal for the formation of a board which is compliant with the Constitution. Members of the public, including professionals, proposed the formation of a board which will manage funds collected by the KRA. The board should manage and allocate funds to several categories of houses which will be built. When I say categories of houses, they The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor"
}