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"id": 189436,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/189436/?format=api",
"text_counter": 177,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Otieno",
"speaker_title": "The Minister of State for Public Service",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to support the Vote of this very important Ministry. I believe that this Ministry needs the support of everyone, particularly in terms of the kind of resources that it will require to change Nairobi. If we are talking about a capital city, it should be 1902 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 16, 2008 a capital city where as soon as you land in Kenya, you can see that Kenyan standards are displayed. If we expect very high Kenyan standards, we must pay attention to the strategy of this particular Ministry. The issue of security, I am sure, has been cited many times. But we expect new ways of dealing with crime in the City. Each time we bust one gang, another gang is formed. Each time the police officers catch up with one group of motor vehicle thieves and robbers, another group is again, formed. There must be some way of putting a stop to this process of one gang after the other. I have been wondering where those street boys go. Why are they always boys? Where do the men that have grown out of these boys go? Is there any way that we can track them and know how we can continuously make the efforts necessary to make them better people? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was at the airport last Sunday. The Minister for Transport is not here. However, I cannot understand how we have a big airport, but all the space is taken up by duty-free shops. Our passengers, who are supposed to be proud of Kenya as an air transit centre, are sleeping on the cold corridor. This has been going on for more than 15 years. Mr. Minister, liaise with your colleague in the Ministry of Transport. The problem at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport should be solved. I think it should not take us three months. If it is a matter of abrogating that contract in the public interest, let it be done. The Minister being a top lawyer here, I am sure, he cannot fail to find a reason out of that Pattni contract that is continuing to mess us at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). What is even more irritating is that this contract actually says that even if we expand the airport, any space for duty free shops will still belong to him. Now, if we proved in The Hague that the contract was obtained through improper corrupt means, why did we not proceed to abrogate this particular one at the JKIA in Nairobi? The mess at the JKIA should be addressed as a matter of priority and let us have comfortable lounges for our passengers that will preserve the name of this Republic for the many passengers that cross here and there. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is no way we will be able to make the city efficient if we continue to attract congestion. All Ministries, in my opinion, should co-operate with the Minister for Nairobi Metropolitan Development. I think we should even be as radical as to think that the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture, with its staff of 3,000 or 4,000 should go to Machakos and private residential houses built out there. All executive houses should be built up on the hill on that side and not in Lavington crossing the street to the other side. The Ministry of Livestock Development should be moved to Athi River. Maybe similar Ministries that are congesting the City of Nairobi should go. The question of meeting physically does not arise because with new technology, Ministers can communicate regardless of where they are in the Republic. We could even have Cabinet meetings without all of us having to sit together. So, some decentralisation is necessary and it will need massive capital to be given to this Ministry to be able to implement some of the decentralisation measures that are necessary to decongest the city. This is because even if we had a fast train to bring people to the city, so long as we are bringing every traffic to the city and taking all the traffic out of the city, we will take two hours to reach town and two hours to go back and burn all the petrol which is imported at US$150 to the barrel. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there was a time in the City of Nairobi where City Council financial bonds were rated A. The private sector was able to invest in the City of Nairobi bonds. Where did we lose it? This Ministry should be able to raise capital for services in the city by issuing bonds. Even if, initially, those bonds will require the guarantee of the central Government let it be, but let us attract all investors throughout the world to give money for purposes of reforms in the City of Nairobi. July 16, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1903 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I looked at some interesting figures and it looks like the rates owing to the City Council of Nairobi are in excess of Kshs10 billion. Some accounts are as high as Kshs5 million, Kshs10 million or Kshs20 million. We need to ask banks to co-operate with the Ministry and the City Council of Nairobi to help the Council to collect these rates from the ratepayers. Unless the ratepayers pay the rates to the city, we cannot improve the services. A new mechanism should be devised in such a way, linked with some financing, all rates are paid when they are due in January and the wealthy ratepayers pay monthly over one or two years, but let the lumpsum rates money come to the Council. There is a serious contradiction that they charge a penalty of 3 per cent per month. The banks are lending at 16 per cent per month. Where is the logic? Can we not get some financing arrangement co-ordinated by the Council and supported by the central Government to make sure that all the ratepayers of the City of Nairobi, through a legal instrument, which I am sure the Minister can draft? That way, we will help the Council recover all the rates in one lumpsum and let individual ratepayers service those debts over four or five years? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, my last point is on corruption. We should adopt a policy that the KACC goes through an assessment process where they examine all service delivery points in the whole country. Where we find a service delivery point is vulnerable or predisposed to corrupt influences by the citizens, there should be new policies so that any particular officer serving at that point does not take so long in the post in a manner that he institutionalises himself to continue getting that corrupt revenue until it becomes part of his life. Similarly, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when a service point has been identified as predisposed to corruption, a computerised system should be instituted so that we do not unnecessarily expose our officers to temptation. Even Jesus taught us a prayer: \"Do not lead us into temptation.\" So, good managers should handle the matters of corruption in City Hall in such a manner that we do not expose our staff to temptations of corruption. We can do that through computerised control systems, job rotation, job inspection and reviews so that the temptation to receive corrupt revenue is minimised through advance managerial methods. I beg to support."
}