HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 189442,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/189442/?format=api",
"text_counter": 183,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Thuo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 144,
"legal_name": "George Thuo",
"slug": "george-thuo"
},
"content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know the Minister has travelled. In countries where people make a decision to develop, it is a conscious decision to move forward. Development grows and all these nice things do not come by accident. These things come because people plan for them. People make a conscious decision that, \"we are going to acquire new status\". To do so, there will be a bit of pain. After all, there is no gain without pain. What does the pain constitute? It means obeying rules, a bit more taxation so that we achieve what it is that is fit for the future generation. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, when you go Singapore they have so many social laws including such examples as you cannot spit and if you spit you are jailed or fined. It may look funny but if you look at the background of the Asian communities or South East Asia where people spit a lot, it makes sense. They have chosen that they are not going to spit. If you enter Singapore, at the airport you would be reminded that you are restricted to a maximum of five sticks of chewing gum which you must dispose of in a particular manner. I am not suggesting that we bring that law here. I am trying to give an example of how people make conscious decisions and pay the price to create the cities or metropolis they wish. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in Nairobi and metropolitan area and indeed, talking of Thika where I come from, which is now part of this metropolis, no by-law seems to exist. You can get up from your home in Murang'a, find that your tomatoes are ripe then you can come to Thika Town and sell them anywhere on any road and yet you have a shop or bazaar. You do not mind the road users or the congestion. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, officials from the Ministry of Local Government have no respect for their own by-laws and rules. We have a market called the Moi Garden in Thika Town. It is a market but it does not have an ablution and all other facilities. It is now home to in excess of 200 July 16, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1909 people. It is a residence to people in addition to being a market. Where on earth have you ever seen this? Where on earth do you allow human accommodation, market, with no ablution, et cetera ? It is only in Kenya. We have very lofty ideals. We should start by respecting simple rules then we might achieve these lofty ambitions. I do not think they are not achievable. I am trying to be a friendly critic to help sort out the issues that bedevil these places. What is the long term solution to the issue of hawkers? Again, I want to refer to the place I am most used to, which is Thika. Hawking is such a protracted issue that does not seem to have a long term solution yet the Ministry can choose to convert Thika Stadium, which to me is ill located, into a multi-storied hawkers market. Relocate everybody to it and build a new stadium for the residents in the lower part of Makongeni where human beings are. It does not have to be in the city centre! However, we can turn the current market into a multi-storey facility for workers. It may sound expensive but the long-term benefits are worthwhile. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on traffic, you leave your office at 5.00 pm. and you want to help your kids with homework or cook for your family, but you have no chance of reaching home on time if you are going by public transport. If you are living in Southlands for instance and travelling on Lang'ata Road, you have no chance of boarding a matatu until 6 p.m or 8 p.m. after the stronger persons have got their way in. When you eventually do, you will not be home before 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. Is it a wonder then that even kids cannot perform well in exams because they do not have parental help? We have a lot of distress at home because mzee might get there earlier because he is stronger and you find that his wife comes three hours later. It is not right. How much do you think we waste in terms of the economy, waiting in queues for vehicles and transport? I appreciate that we are talking about the rail network. I wish it could come tomorrow. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, even in attempting to solve the transport problem by changing a market like Muthurwa into a terminus, traffic is too much within the city centre. We should not create parking lanes or dropping zones within the city centre. They ought to be further away and we ought to have actually long-term plans that include thinking through these issues and taking the facilities out of town so that you transport people in and out en masse. This is the only city that says that indeed, we are happy to licence even the smallest carriers. I know it is a political and emotive issue but the truth is that if you do not go for mass transport, then you will be in for trouble. Why is it that Kenya does not have, in the absence of trains, the so-called bendy buses that are 27 metres long and can carry in excess of 200 passengers? Why are we going for smaller carriers? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, talking about the beauty of this city, if the law exists, why are we not having green areas? Why are we encroaching on the few remaining green areas in Nairobi? I wish to refer to the same Singapore, a very tiny country which has more green area within it than Kenya, which we have hardly occupied. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to commend the work being done on Nairobi River by the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources and to ask that the Ministry of Nairobi Metropolitan Development works with this Ministry. Rivers and river ponds just like the trains and others can become centres of economic activity and can be very useful to spur growth and development in those neighbourhoods. We must perceive Nairobi River this way and not a place where people build cafeterias or thugs live on the banks and accept that it has to be that way. It does not have to be. I must also congratulate the Minister on his vision of a 24 hour economy. In a country of such high unemployment, this would really go a long way to allow more people to be employed and enable us to do business all the time. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to come back again to my favourite town of Thika and to 1910 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 16, 2008 say that it is a shame that even as we go for this metropolis, no one is thinking through the issue of asking the local authority in Thika to stop subdividing land into 50 feet by 100 feet plots for instance. We still have a few coffee estates in Thika. This would be a beautiful high class suburb for Nairobi if we plan it early enough but we have no planning. You will buy a two acre plot but next to you will be 50 feet by 100 feet plot. Those who do planning, and I am not a student of planning, will know that this cannot then result in the kind of neighbourhoods we are looking for. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we also have the single largest land outside Nairobi based in Thika. It will now be part of the metropolis. I am glad to see that there is a budget to plan for these other areas. I hope that Kiandutu slum is captured. I also wish to comment on the fact that the municipalities within the area lack senior planners. The most senior planner in Thika Municipality is a very junior man. We have no planners. We do not have a Director of Social Services. We do not have the right people. The Ministry must invest not only in recruitment of the best people but also in training and equipping them with the best trends in the world. The beauty of starting late, is that we can leapfrog everyone else and come to the most recent technology if you so wish. If today we were to do a new telephone exchange, we do not have to go to the ones of koroga . We can go straight into digital, and so, in the same manner, I wish the Minister would consider getting the brightest minds to do planning that is based on 21st Century thinking so that it helps our people. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am very disappointed that the Minister is not directly in charge of his revenues. I wish he was because there are many opportunities here but I also wish to say that I am very pleased that only over 10 per cent of his budget is for recurrent and that he has a huge portion for development. I know it is nowhere near enough and I wish we would allocate him more funds because as I said, I believe he has the right dream and I believe with the resources, it can be achieved. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}