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{
    "id": 1403487,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1403487/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 134,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Sifuna",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13599,
        "legal_name": "Sifuna Edwin Watenya",
        "slug": "sifuna-edwin-watenya"
    },
    "content": "High Court sitting in Kitale that declared all those processes to be extra-legal because most of these committees were disbanded without ever handing in their final reports to tell us whether those bills are payable or not. I want to speak as the Senator for Nairobi City County. Sometimes lawyers are all lumped together and many claim that most of these legal bills are fictitious. However, there is a process in the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) to ascertain what is payable and what is not. There are many good young lawyers who have done work for Nairobi City County Government. However, they have not been paid at the expense of a few rogue lawyers, especially senior people in the profession who raise ridiculous fee notes for work which is not commensurate to that payment. We need to isolate those cases where we believe work was genuinely done in order to process those payments. In the same OAG’s report, we have a list of stalled development projects in the county. We have over 12 stalled health projects. That includes construction of health facilities at all levels of the healthcare system, which amounts to about Kshs1.4 billion in pending bills. I have given examples on this Floor of construction works that have stalled at our Level 5 Hospitals. If you go to Mbagathi Hospital, there is a stalled construction project. The contractor abandoned site because of non-payment of bills amounting to Kshs40 million. At Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital and Mutuini Sub-District Hospital in Dagoretti South, the story is also the same. If you go to Pumwani Maternity Hospital, the premier facility for delivery of children in this country, the situation is the same. Yesterday I heard the Cabinet Secretary for Health saying that the monies that were owed by the national Government to these facilities under Linda Mama Programme and the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) had been paid. She told us to check the accounts today. However, as of yesterday when she had finished speaking, I spoke to the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of these facilities and that money has not been seen. I am also going to check with them today to see whether these amounts have been paid because we need these projects to be completed. One of the conversations that has been going on with the current flooding in the country and Nairobi City County in particular, is the question of garbage. We have a big problem. Garbage has become a serious menace and it is contributing to the situation of flooding. Most of the garbage that remains uncollected in many areas end up in our drainages and people’s homes flood. For example, we had a collection centre that was opened at Umoja Innercore. That garbage was not meant to stay there. It was supposed to be collected at Innercore and taken to Dandora Dumping Site. Since September, 2023, the contractors abandoned their work for non-payment and the garbage at Innercore in Umoja has now reached the power lines. That is how high up it has been stacked. We have illegal dumping sites at places like Likoni Road. If you speak to business people who operate in that area behind Karatasi Brands, they will tell you that there is an illegal dumping site that was opened behind Enterprise Road. All of those business from Enterprise Road coming all the way up to Road C and B are flooded. People are counting 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 and AudioServices, Senate."
}