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{
    "id": 157636,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/157636/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 283,
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    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the Presidential Speech, it addressed some issues very well. These are issues to do with agriculture, water, health, education and youth matters. We thank God for the Kazi Kwa Vijana initiative that has started. It is a very good project for the youth. However, as I sat in this House listening to His Excellency the President giving his Speech, I was extremely disappointed that our President ignored one of the sectors that is very important in this country. We always say that the basic needs of human beings are food, water and shelter. The President addressed food and water but forgot to address shelter. We have 5.4 million people living in slums. We have 66 per cent of the Kenyan population living in slums and yet he forgot to mention anything about shelter. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have made Kibera and Mathare a tourist attraction. When tourists come, we take them to Kibera and Mathare to see how real slums look like. To me, I did not like the fact that shelter was ignored. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, going to policy, the Presidential Speech was full of policies, which was very good. However, going to the housing sector, there are two Bills we are working on which were totally ignored and nothing was mentioned about them in the Speech. One of them is the Housing Bill. This is the Bill that will make sure that we build houses and facilitate our people to build houses in the right way. The other one is the Building Code. We are currently operating with one drawn in the early 1960s. That is the reason we have buildings falling and killing people without anybody being prosecuted. We cannot apportion blame to the architect or engineer in charge of such buildings because the Building Code does not give us a leeway to plan and implement properly. I did not take it lightly that such Bills were ignored and not factored in the Presidential Speech. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have many problems in our country and a good number of them were well addressed. I observe that the Presidential Address mentioned a little bit about infrastructure. This is especially on roads with a good amount of money factored there. However, it was totally silent on the same road users, especially the matatu industry that has major problems which have not been addressed; neither by the security agents nor the transport sector. We also have the hawkers and small traders that nobody seemed to have remembered. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, our tourist industry has been suffering and some people have been laid off especially in Malindi. Nothing much was mentioned on this industry. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I congratulate the President because he spoke very well about Migingo Island and what we are doing to resolve the dispute. However, on the same breath, we have problems with our borders. At Kacheliba in West Pokot there are problems but that was not mentioned in the Speech. At the time His Excellency the President was giving his Speech, we were struggling and battling with the beacons that had been removed from our border. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to say that when it comes to reforms, we are doing well but not well enough. We are moving at a snail’s pace. We are moving so slowly that some of us are wondering when we shall ever get there. As most of my colleagues have said, nothing much was said in the Presidential Speech to address corruption in this country and yet we know that corruption is a monster that is destroying our nation. Mine is to pray and wish that the Tenth Parliament shall not go down in"
}