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{
    "id": 149240,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/149240/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 506,
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    "content": "to Tanga in Tanzania and they are only brought in on the day of the elections. The elections are, therefore, not transparent. Nobody knows on what basis they have agreed to support the different camps. We need direct election of mayors. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another thing is the term in office. A mayor is elected for a term of two years in the first instance. That is a very short time. By the time he gets to know his office, the councillors are on his back demanding that he listens to them or they will not vote for him or her. So, we need mayors and chairpersons elected for five years just like Members of Parliament. The other issue that has come out clearly is the payment of councillors. Everywhere you go, councillors insist that they want to be paid from the Consolidated Fund. They also want to be paid a fixed salary instead of the current allowances that they draw. They are even having problems with banks. When they go to banks, they are told that they earn allowances not salaries. We need to start paying our councillors from the Consolidated Fund. This will also ease the burden on local authorities. That is one of the recommendations of this Committee. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we have mayors and chairpersons elected directly by the people, it will mean that we must also give them powers. We must make them executive mayors and chairpersons so that they are able to handle and run their local authorities. The people should hold them responsible for the day to day performance and running of office. With regard to the Nairobi Metropolitan Development which is supervised by this Committee, since I joined that Ministry we have identified traffic jam as our priority number one. We are wasting over Kshs24 billion on fuel alone during traffic jams. Every person, on average, is wasting two hours stuck in traffic jam; at an average speed of 30 kilometres per hour in urban areas. We are looking at ways of making the Nairobi Central Business District (NCBD) a one-way street. We have identified Moi Avenue and Tom Mboya Street to be converted into one-way streets. The bus stop at Kencom will be removed because it is causing chaos there. I have instructed my officers to deal with this matter as a matter of urgency so that we can sort out traffic jams in the NCBD. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, however, that will not reduce traffic jams in the city. We have also identified Mombasa Road - Uhuru Highway - Waiyaki Way. The road from Athi River to Nyayo National Stadium will be okay once we complete the inter-change at Athi River. There will be a fly-over there and so from Athi River past the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), it will take less than five minutes. Most of the time, the jam starts from South B fly-over. We have identified the Nyayo National Stadium roundabout as the main culprit. I have given instructions to my officers to start designing a fly over or inter-change in that area so that we eliminate the jam as we wait to do the other things that will take time. These include the mono-rail, which is supposed to start from Athi River to JKIA, through town, to Limuru. Another one will come from Kayole to Buru Buru all the way to Kikuyu. This will take time as we look for the funds but in the meantime, we are trying to do the best we can do in the circumstance. We are doing things that do not require a lot of money. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is our intention that we also have the bypasses; the Southern, Eastern and Northern bypasses. Design work is going on on the bypasses. For example, if you take the Northern by-pass it is supposed to start at the place the American Embassy used to be, all the way to Langata, Kibera, cutting across"
}