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{
    "id": 1378536,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1378536/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 192,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "I will just give one example. Before I go there, many businesses have been crippled because of being owed huge sums of money. People have committed suicide, especially those who have done business with the national Government and county governments. Local economies have been grounded to a halt because of money owed to suppliers and contractors. Banks are auctioning property across the country because of this. Let me just give an example of the State Department for Roads alone. As at 31st December 2023, the State Department for Roads had pending bills of Ksh162 billion with up to Ksh650 billions of certified works. What it means is that if you are to pay for all the roads that you see being constructed around the country to completion, then their total value would be Ksh650 billion. The works that have been done on those roads and certified for payments and yet they have not been paid is Ksh162 billion. Compare that to how much is allocated to this State department. The State Department has a provision of roughly Ksh40 billion to Ksh50 billion. If you have to clear only all the pending bills today, it means you will need a minimum of four to five years. If we were to pay for all the roads that you see being constructed around, we would need 12 years. Without even starting a kilometre or an inch of a new road, we need 12 years for the ones under construction only. As a country, we need to stop politicking and accept the reality that we have been over- committing. We should stop any new constructions of roads and continue to complete ongoing roads so that there would be value for the money spent and pumped into those roads. It is about time this House bit the bullet, I have said it before and I say it again: Let us take radical steps."
}