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"id": 189432,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/189432/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Poghisio",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Information and Communications",
"speaker": {
"id": 202,
"legal_name": "Samuel Losuron Poghisio",
"slug": "samuel-poghisio"
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion. Let me take this opportunity to congratulate my colleague and the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development for presenting its needs. Let me say from the outset that I support this particular Motion. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me also congratulate those who have just spoken; the Minister, himself, the Minister for Lands and hon. Members, including Mr. C. Kilonzo who has just spoken. The trend seems to be very clear; that one of support. So, I begin by those congratulations. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is very little that one can say about the need for that Ministry in this country. It is all thumbs up. It is all support because it is about time a great country like Kenya has a metropolis; a world class metropolis! It is about time we see the features that we see in other countries and in other African cities. We do not even need to get out of Africa! Just going down south or to northern Africa, you can begin to see some of the things that we desire to have, and that make up a metropolis. It is about time that we have them! It is also about time that our cities are planned from the beginning! This is a good opportunity for Nairobi and the greater Nairobi to get proper planning so that, even before we see the infrastructure, we can begin to see it presented to us in a modern form. We can begin to see it, in advance, how the modern form of a nice metropolis is going to look like. This is the only chance that we have to make over; this is the chance for us to deal with issues and complications that we have had before. It is the right time and, so, I stand to support this particular Motion. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the good thing about planning for a metropolis is that you do not need to re-invent the wheel. We are not going to start as though we are building from nothing! Nairobi is already a city of its own class within the region. We only need to build on it. We have examples and many, many places from where we can simply import or bring in the infrastructure that we want. We just need to look in any direction or go to any metropolis in the world, and we can actually get ourselves the desired infrastructure that is there. Although we cannot copy what is in other countries directly, we can actually use those as models and build on our own, including our own culture in our city's infrastructure development. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it has been said that the great countries of today went through problems before they realized that they needed to take leaps and strides. They went through wars, civil wars and many problems. We have just come out of a very difficult situation ourselves, early this year. Out of that, came the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development. That is supposed to tell you that we have come out of the problem and we are now ready to make July 16, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1897 strides in the area of development; to build our country to better heights. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish my brother and my friend, the Minister for Nairobi Metropolitan Development and his team success as they go about their duties. Do not worry about the money. You should worry about the idea and the concept of the metropolis! I do not very much worry about the budgetary provisions. It may be Kshs2 billion or Kshs5 billion, but the concept and the desire for us to go in this direction is what has been missing for a long time. We must congratulate His Excellency the President for creating that Ministry. Of course, I am sure that it is going to be extended to other possible metropolis outside Nairobi. But this is a good time to congratulate the Government for seeing it fit to put this country in the right track in terms of developing the metropolis. The metropolis comes with a lot of satellite cities within itself! So, it is going to improve our overall communication. It will solve the chronic problems of traffic jam in the city. It is good to have the Minister who is going to think about this problem. Now, we can ask Questions about traffic jams. It has been very difficult to ask anybody about the traffic jams and the difficulties that we meet. Now, we have somebody who will worry about it. He should think about what we will do about this chronic area that has been mentioned like the Uhuru Highway coming from the airport and Thika Road and so on. Creating a metropolis is informed by the problems of the present time. So, it is going to be useful to use the current situation in Nairobi to develop the solution for the greater metropolis. I do not worry about the money because everybody knows that to build a metropolis and the network necessary for the great and expanded city, you actually need a lot of investment. This an opportunity for us to go into the public-private sector partnership. It is going to be a very good place where we are going to have this great infrastructure that is supported by the public sector in terms of investment. I, therefore, want us to accept that we have taken the first step in the development of a great metropolis. I wish my friend, the Minister and his team, success in this matter. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}