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{
"id": 187829,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/187829/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Waititu",
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"speaker": {
"id": 147,
"legal_name": "Ferdinand Ndung'u Waititu",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this Motion and commend the Minister and his staff for their excellent work in lighting up the country, and in particular the rural areas. Rural electrification has been a big success, only that in some areas like the slums, we have had a low supply of electricity, which has been the cause of most of the fires in such areas. Power in the slum areas is not enough and people there tend to supply themselves power using poor quality wires over long distances. That has been the cause of the poor connections, which result in fires in the slum areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I come from Embakasi, where most of the areas are inhabited by poor people, who are not able to pay the connection fee in full. In fact, I had approached the Managing Director of Kenya Power and Lighting Company, so that people out there can be allowed to pay the connection fee in instalments through their monthly electricity bills. For some people, raising Kshs32,000 at once is a problem. In fact, the Managing Director had promised that a certain programme was coming up. I do not know what happened. Maybe, in future, we should have that kind of arrangement for the slum areas, so that people can connect electricity into their houses easily. 2166 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 29, 2008 Recently, I saw some concrete posts, which I believe will be long-lasting than the wooden poles. In fact, production of concrete poles should be encouraged, so that the project can create more employment to our people. Also, this Ministry should have more training facilities, which should be cheaper. Nowadays, most of the welding machines are easily made by Jua Kali artisans. However, the artisans who make those machines are poorly trained. I believe that if the Ministry can offer some cheap training in polytechnics, certainly, it can create some awareness on electrical works. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, so far, the Ministry has done well, but some of us have big areas of slums. For instance, Mukuru kwa Njenga slum, in my constituency, has not had electricity for two months. That area has a population of about 500,000 people. People in that area cannot afford electricity because of the connection fee. Electricity is very essential to everybody, and especially to our schools. Those areas have secondary schools which need electricity. Two weeks ago, one of the schools in that area went on strike, and there was no electricity. When fire started, people could not run away because of the darkness around that area. In fact, it was a big disaster. So, I appeal to the Ministry to consider supplying cheap electricity to slum areas. With those few remarks, I beg to support the Motion."
}