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{
    "id": 1385347,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1385347/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 427,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Thang’wa",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, so that I paint a clear picture, it has been in the news and all over that we have seen hon. Members, not only from this House, trying to build decent houses for their constituents. We have seen Members such as hon. Otiende Amollo, hon. Didmus Barasa and hon. Sen. (Prof.) Tom Ojienda, SC, online building houses. However, those houses are not as decent as they should be if we were to go by the provisions of Article 43(1)(b) of the Constitution. That is why this Bill is bringing decency and dignity to the people of Kenya. When this Bill came to our committee, we proposed many amendments because we saw that as was debated at the National Assembly, it did not cater for the rural areas. That is why we are bringing the amendments we will be discussing because this Bill will help us build a decent house for someone in the village who has land and all he wants is a decent house. We are even suggesting renaming the Bill to Rural and Urban Affordable Housing Bill. This Bill is pulling resources together by forming this fund so that we build decent houses. When we have money in one pool, the Bill suggests that every county will benefit. Since Article 96 of the Constitution says that we take care of the interest of counties, the Committee took it upon itself to introduce something that was not there in the first place – the county committees or boards, so that they can have a say in this programme. Madam Temporary Speaker, every county will be having such a committee that will work closely with this fund. As if that is not enough, we also realized that this fund will be collecting money from Kenyans and they must be channeled back to the counties. In the previous amendments, we suggested that some resources from this fund will go to the counties directly so that every county benefits. We received over 29 memoranda from Kenyans with very good suggestions. We even had to invite some stakeholders to appear before us. One of them was the State Department of Housing led by the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development, hon. Alice Wahome, together with Permanent Secretary, Mr. Charles Hinga. We even had the Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK) giving their views. We had the Kenya National Federation of Jua Kali Association. All of them, together with others were in support that Kenyans need decent housing. Madam Temporary Speaker, we looked at all those inputs that the stakeholders brought to us. We considered some of them and some were already in the Bill. We always say that every Bill concerning counties must be brought to the Senate. I do reiterate that when we looked at this Bill, the fund was working in isolation. Therefore, we had to loop in counties through the county boards where governors will have say in those committees. We may, for example, have a “hustler” somewhere, a boda boda rider such as in Mitahato village where I was born and that person does not need a house in the urban"
}