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"id": 189439,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Konchella",
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"legal_name": "Gideon Sitelu Konchella",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. As I speak about Nairobi Metropolitan, first, I want to state that Nairobi is our home away from home. So, the reality is that even as individuals, we should be part of this Ministry. We should all be concerned about what this Ministry will be doing, because it affects all our lives. Therefore, this Ministry is not like any other. It is a very special Ministry. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to start by congratulating the President for, very wisely, creating this Ministry, and for very ably appointing this particular Minister and his Assistant Minister. If we have top lawyers in this country, this Minister is one of them. If this Minister fails to sort out the problems that we have in Nairobi, nobody else can sort them out. The Assistant Minister is equally up to the task because her constituency is also within Nairobi. So, we have the best team for this Ministry. If they do not deliver, they will be judged very harshly by the people of Nairobi and those of us who live here. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as far as I am concerned, this Ministry does not need any money from the Treasury. What is needed is for the Minister to bring a Bill to this House to amend the Local Government Act to provide for the relocation of Nairobi City Council to the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development. Once that happens, the Ministry will collect more revenue than that allocated to this Vote by the Minister for Finance. There is a lot of revenue which is not collected in Nairobi. In fact, because of the high level of corruption within the Nairobi City Council, a half of the revenue collected goes into individuals' pockets. We only need to empower the Nairobi Metropolitan Authority to design methods of revenue collection such that every penny that is collected is accounted for electronically. That way, we will avoid corruption and hence avoid sacking people who, because they are lowly paid, they dig their hands into public money, which one day lands them into trouble. So, the Minister should do that, because that is the only way he can finance the various development aspects of Nairobi. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are very key issues which I would like to suggest. One is the planning of Nairobi. The Ministry should undertake the Year 2050 planning of Nairobi, because places like Ngong, Athi-River, Ruiru, Kiambu as well as Kikuyu, will be part of Nairobi. So, construction works within those areas should consider the long-term development of Nairobi. To plan for this massive unplanned situation, we need a very good planning team, which can get views from Kenyans and be able to plan on how to develop Nairobi. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the issues that the Ministry must tackle is that of moderate density and high density housing, so that it can tax and create funds out of this sector. Of course, the Ministry must also tackle the issue of the levels of buildings, upwards or downwards. Sometimes we build skyscrapers. You can see that Times Tower building is so high. If a fire breaks out tomorrow, on the 30th Floor of that building, who will put it off? Why are we going to the \"sky\" when we know that we do not have the capacity to intervene in case of an emergency? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on Outering Road, some developers have put up seven storey residential buildings. If a fire beaks out, nobody will save people in those buildings. In fact, the buildings are badly done. In some cases, you find children playing on balconies, on the Fifth Floor, which do not even have grills to protect them from falling. So, the quality of construction of buildings should be such that anybody trying to construct buildings outside certain parameters will have to be jailed. Let the Minister bring the necessary amendments here, so that we can make the laws so July 16, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1907 stiff, so that nobody can build a house halfway and then it collapses, killing a lot of people. That can only be done by the Minister if he is totally in charge of Nairobi. That is what must be done, otherwise, it would be a waste of time creating a Ministry and not empowering it to do the job it is supposed to do. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, a lot of youths today have nothing to do. We need to have a lot of recreational facilities in different corners of Nairobi, so that there can be recreational places for families to go and relax, because some of them have nowhere to go. This is their home. So, they should be able to have recreational facilities. Children should have places to play. People should live a comfortable life. The Ministry should, of course, plant trees. Another issue is that of constructing bypasses. The exercise will take a lot of money, but I can assure you that if the Ministry takes over Nairobi and collects revenue, it will build all the necessary road bypasses in Nairobi without assistance from Treasury. There is a lot of money in Nairobi. As we talk about constructing bypasses, we should appreciate the fact that driving on Nairobi roads between 7.00 a.m. and 8.00 a.m., or even at this hour, is a daunting task. Therefore, I suggest that we have a short-term way of going round the issue of traffic jams in Nairobi. Let us not have lorries travelling across Nairobi at day time. Let us have all lorries going to Kampala, Mombasa or Nyeri, travel across Nairobi between 8.00 p.m. and 5.00 a.m. Let us have no lorries travelling across Nairobi outside those hours, because it is impossible. People cannot go to the airport on time. They get late because of lorries which congest the roads. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue is security. Last year when I was the Minister for Immigration and Registration of Persons, many organisations and institutions came to see me to relocate Nairobi as a regional hub. Indeed, I facilitated companies like Microsoft to move from South Africa to Nairobi as a regional body to take care of Africa. I also helped a company like Nokia which is a very big employer. They were more than ten major companies. Out of that, we got a lot of employment opportunities for our people. In each of the companies more than 200 Kenyans are employed. We want to attract foreign investors in Nairobi. There are major companies that want to relocate to Nairobi but we must take care of the security. One of the things one hon. Member mentioned here is our shameful airport. It is quite a shame to come to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. If I were the Minister I would go and break those scales myself. I do not know whether, as a lawyer, I can break the law which we make here. However, it is such a shame for kiosks to be put in an airport. Let the kiosks be removed. Let that airport be redesigned. Let all the shops be in a different building so that passengers can have some fresh air. When it is hot in Nairobi you will see many people collapsing at the airport particulary old people. When the airport is full, people collapse because of the heat. It is too hot and too congested. The kiosks should be got rid of. It should be done within the next two months or so. Let everybody relocate their shops because we do not need them. They can be constructed somewhere else. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other important thing that will decongest Nairobi is building wholesale markets in strategic places. Let us have a major wholesale market in Athi River where everybody can buy their goods. Let us have others in Ngong area, Kiambu and Ruiru. They should be big ones like those in South Africa. People can then come from Nairobi, shop and go to their homes. They do not have to cross from Thika to Lang'ata to get facilities. That way, we allow traffic to flow better and farmers to sell wholesale to the rest of the world. We are not empowering our farmers. However, this Ministry can even empower farmers in Kenya to sell goods both in and out of the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank the Minister for what we have received so far. However, let us have qualified people to assist the Minister to do his job. It is so 1908 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 16, 2008 crucial to our lives and everybody's life. We cannot retire to our rural areas. Everybody has to come to Nairobi and that is why there is a lot of congestion. That is why I am saying that it is home away from home. It is actually going to be our first home. Therefore, security, provision of water, road network and lighting on streets is the only way we can reduce insecurity and make the City secure. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}