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{
    "id": 1588814,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1588814/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 213,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "We are well aware that in addition to the formal ways of raising taxes or revenue, the transport sector is one of the biggest sectors that helps the Government to raise money. Why ignore a sector that generates revenue? An ordinary person would invest more where they generate more. We previously had a policy in the country to allocate more money to sectors that generate more revenue. I do not know what happened to it. We plan in five-year cycles with politics in mind. That is the big problem. Some major roads cannot be fixed within a five-year period. We should spread out those projects for purposes of planning and investment. We are currently experiencing problems that we could have avoided many years ago. It has been 60 years since Independence and we have only managed to construct the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR), which we do not even completely own. We have not constructed any railway line, and yet it would have been the best alternative to the roads. The colonial government constructed a railway line from Mombasa to Uganda in less than a decade, from 1896 to 1903. That was ages ago. We have not constructed a kilometre of rail since Independence aside from the SGR. Attempts have been made but many of them still focus on doing those projects within a five-year period. It cannot work. For planning purposes, we should have determined the period of time for construction of the roads from Mombasa to Nairobi, Nairobi to Busia or Malaba, Nairobi to Garissa and Nairobi to Kisumu. That is what helped Tanzania. Tanzania has constructed five major bridges across their big rivers within the term of each successive government. They have constructed major roads and bridges. They have bigger bridges than those in Kenya apart from the Nyali Bridge. The other bridges are big because they cross big rivers. They have accomplished all that because their projects are not tied to electoral periods. Those are some of the things that we need to look at so that we make use of data as we plan. Next is the issue of quality. Highways are constructed like village roads. The Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) has constructed a road from Kisian to Osieko in my The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}