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{
    "id": 1443812,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1443812/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 198,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kipchumba Murkomen",
    "speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 440,
        "legal_name": "Onesimus Kipchumba Murkomen",
        "slug": "kipchumba-murkomen"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity to come and respond to the questions. Again, let me repeat that it is my greatest pleasure to come back to this august House. Since all the questions relate to pending roads, allow me, by way of introduction, just to say something in two minutes. One is that the situation has not changed in so far as development of our roads in the country is concerned from the time I was here. Let me repeat that it is important for the nation to understand that when we came into office in October, 2022, and from when this Government was elected in August, 2022, I inherited a road portfolio on these roads that have been mentioned for development, of about Kshs150 billion pending bills. This amount was in regards to roads that have been pending for even up to 10 years. The last time I was here, I gave examples of some of the roads that have been pending for many years. They include the Tharaka Nithi-Chiakariga and Marimanti Road that we went to launch in 2014. The people of Kenya will appreciate that the Kshs150 billion required a one-off payment. So, from the time we came to office, we should then have commenced an accumulation of that amount moving forward. Unfortunately, in the first year, we were given a budget of about Kshs53 billion. Of that Kshs53 billion, about Kshs34 billion was disbursed and we paid the contractors in the year 2022/2023. When we paid some of these contractors because it is distributed--- As you know, Parliament budgets for road by road. We distributed a little amount of money across the roads and some of the contractors were able to go on site. In this Financial Year 2023/2024 that has just ended, the budget provision was initially at Kshs73 billion. Then supplementary budgets came in, cutting the amount up to Kshs51 billion. By the end of that Financial Year, on the 30th June, 2024, which is a few weeks ago, the Ministry had only received Kshs25 billion, half of the disbursements of the budget allocation. What does that mean? For the two years that I have been in office, in terms of budget allocation and disbursement, the actual money that came to the Ministry to chase the road portfolio of Kshs150 billion then was about Kshs50 billion. Of course, the contractor incurred another pending bill when the Kshs50 billion was paid. That moved it again to Kshs165 billion. As we sit here, we have a pending bill of Kshs165 billion for all the road contracts across the country. That explains why most of the answers that I will read, as supplied to this House, are majorly that we will complete when funding is provided. We have gone to a new Financial Year with another budget of another Kshs50 billion to chase another Kshs165 billion. Therefore, we are not sure there will be a disbursement that is commensurate with the resources we want by the end of this FY. Unless there is a drastic decision from the National Treasury and Parliament through the budget for a one-time-off payment of Kshs165 billion to the contractors, we will be lying to the nation. I will continue being that Cabinet Secretary accused of lying to say that we will complete these roads in time in the absence of a drastic change in the budgeting process. The situation has been made worse by the misfortune of the failure of the Finance Bill. That means we will stagnate because it becomes a challenge for the Government to look for other resources to plug in the Kshs349 billion. 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."
}