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"id": 184440,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Lesrima",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Provincial Administration and Internal Security",
"speaker": {
"id": 178,
"legal_name": "Simon Saimanga Lesirma",
"slug": "simon-lesirma"
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"content": " Thank you, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. I want to begin by congratulating the Minister and the Permanent Secretary who are both new in the Ministry. I, however, have confidence that they can both do a very good job. One would say that this is not a \"Mudavadi Budget\" in the sense that he is not actually the owner. He may have done a bit of policing here and there. From my own experience and his, having been the Minister for Finance for seven years, we know that the Budget cycle in the current system begins in August and by March, the deal is done. That is why some of us were fighting in the Ninth Parliament for the establishment of the Budget Office or the Fiscal Analysis and Appropriation Committee of this House with a composition of 15 members. The idea was to get a satisfactory arrangement for Budget preparation, including an opportunity for hearing the Departmental Committees of Parliament. The public hearing was to be extended more than the one morning session that is conducted at KICC in Nairobi only. Having said so, I would like to raise a few issues concerning governance in our local authorities. There is a problem in physical planning in our towns and urban councils. There is no co-ordination between the Ministry of Lands and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Local Government. You will find in every urban council surveyors and planners and yet there are also planning officers and surveyors at the Ministry of Lands. It is important that those two Ministries work together for proper planning of our towns and urban centres. This will prevent the kind of problems that have been mentioned by previous speakers with regard to plot allocation, double allocation and so on. The second governance issue is with regard to procurement. This Ministry should also follow the procurement law. If I may refer to my county council, in one incident they put up an airstrip for Kshs7 million. The cost of construction was revised over a period of time to Kshs19 million. It was later discovered that the airstrip is not usable because no aircraft can land there because there is a hill that blocks the view of the runaway. Now, it is a white elephant project. This wastage needs to be stopped. Programmes costing so much money must be supervised from the headquarters. The other example I have is the construction of a bus park for Maralal Urban Council which will cost Kshs53 million. A bus park where there are no buses! In fact, in the Ninth Parliament, I raised a Question and wondered why they should not have given us a donkey park! However, since there are a few matatus plying there, they would have thought of doing something for less than Kshs53 million. A contractor arrived on site and did some work. I raised an issue in this Parliament because the contract was awarded in Nairobi. Somebody in the Ministry's headquarters got bitter about the issue. They have now reduced the amount of money to be spend on that project from Kshs53 million to Kshs17 million just to teach me a lesson. The contractor has scrapped the earth and taken of. That is another governance issue. Why are contracts awarded in Nairobi? Our people have gone to school! They are able to adjudicate these tenders in Samburu. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is not just the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Local Government which has this problem. Even the Ministry of State for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands has the same problem. We were allocated Kshs100 million for Maralal Water Supply. When they sacked an honest Permanent Secretary the other day and left a vacuum--- We had agreed earlier on with the Permanent Secretary that we will go with the leaders and plan how to utilise that money. As soon as the Permanent Secretary was sacked for being too honest, a group of civil servants arrived in Maralal and decided to divide the money. Now, how are they going to do it? Consultancy, Kshs26 million; two boreholes in Maralal, Kshs20 million and so on. Already, 50 per cent of the money has gone to contracts. Thanks to the opportunity we have now of the Grand Coalition Government. We made noise and asked the October 14, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2689 fellows to go back. I am told the money will be returned. I would rather have the money returned to serve other Kenyans than a few individuals \"eat' the money just because there is no Permanent Secretary in that Ministry. I do not know why you are still waiting for Mrs. Mwatela to accept the job. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, the third governance issue I want to raise is the audit of the Local Authority Service Delivery Action Plan (LASDAP) Funds. We must monitor the LASDAP funds. Just as much as there is a lot of concern with the way Members of Parliament use CDF money--- We have been told that a number of Members of Parliament did not make it back to this House because of misuse of CDF money. We also need to know how LASDAP money has been used. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, se also need to know what works have been done, whether indeed there is no duplication, whether it was done by the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) and the quality of workmanship. I doubt even if the Ministry of Public Works is involved in the supervision of these jobs. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is something called contribution in lieu of rate. We have a forest in Samburu District. Twenty five per cent of forest cover in Kenya lies in Samburu. That means 25 per cent of the oxygen you breath comes from Samburu and the Government owes us contribution in rates to the tune of Kshs90 million so far. I am glad to note that there is some kind of budget although it is not segregated. I hope that the Ministry will begin to pay an outstanding amount of Kshs90 million but I know it is not this Ministry's problem but the Treasury's. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, we are also not amused that in spite of the fact that Samburu District is host to 25 per cent of forestry in Kenya, not a single Board member comes from that region. To make matters worse, we now have a new problem of exploitation and looting of sandalwood. A lorry load of sandalwood costs Kshs10 million and is exported overseas. There are predators hovering around for sandalwood. I want to warn them that we have advised our people what to do to them. The final point is with regard to the incentives to those county councils that make contribution to the economy of this country. We know that tourists come to this country to see wildlife and sometimes some of us, in our past form. We are told that the tourists' contribution is Kshs67 billion. We think it is just fair that some compensation is made to those areas that contribute. With those many remarks, I beg to support."
}