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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Motion on the Ministry of Transport. As I take the Floor, I want to share the sentiments of Prof. Maathai, who has stated a few things which I really want to emphasise on in terms of adding more weight to them, if they will ever be listened to. One most important issue that she has raised, which has touched me, is the issue of impunity; people doing things without regard for others. That reminds me of some great leaders who disobeyed the law even when there were court injunctions. So, what does that tell you? If a September 5, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3725 father in a home is behaving in a funny way, you do not expect his child to behave differently. Therefore, if we are talking about issues of law and respect for each other, it must start from all the spheres. One other thing that is affecting us is the selective application of the law, particularly in terms of passing on sentences and punitive measures. Having said that, let me go straight to the issue of road carnage. Last Thursday, 30th August, 2007, at Daraja Moja in Kisii Town, a trailer rammed into three matatus which were carrying passengers who had just left a funeral, and 29 people died on the spot, while others were critically injured and are admitted to hospital. Road carnage is not something which anybody needs to emphasise. It is only the implementors of the policies that need to move with due speed and diligence to apply and save this country from the road carnage. Let us give hon. Michuki his fair share of praise. At least, he brought sanity on our road system. Hon. Mwakwere, who is a little younger and looks more flamboyant and a diplomat, we thought could do better. We should encourage him and give him more money, so that he can, at least, try to measure to what hon. Michuki did. It is disappointing to note that we have gone back to total matatu madness. I thought that after we attacked the Mungiki members, who were patronising our transport system, sanity would prevail. The situation is terrible and you cannot believe it. As much as we want to remove blame from the Ministry of Transport, our road system is terrible. It is true that the carnage on our roads has a linkage between the road worthiness of our vehicles and the quality of our roads. Most of our bridges are colonial bridges. For example, the Daraja Moja bridge, where the accident happened, is a very narrow bridge which was constructed right at a bend. Therefore, any driver at high speed would easily lose control. We need to redesign our roads. We need to expand our bridges. That Daraja Moja bridge needs to be expanded to reduce the risk involved in killing our people. Besides our bad roads and the narrow bridges, the road worthiness of our vehicles must be put to question. One wonders why we have the Vehicles Inspection Unit in Industrial Area, where people go to receive stamps on the same vehicles that they drove in. More often than not some vehicles are never driven to Industrial Area for inspection. This is something that we must address, as a nation. Again, the element of corruption creeps in. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on our air transport, we have had serious accidents in West Africa. Unless the reports of the same accidents came out yesterday, we are yet to know the cause of such tragic accidents. We are very quick in terms of flying, consoling families and giving them all manner of goodies during such tragedies. More often than not, we are bent to fire fighting as opposed to providing fire extinguishers to stop the fire or having precautionary measures. This country needs to know the reports of the two planes that have crashed in West Africa, which were very tragic to this nation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I now move to the Meteorological Department. You and I know for a fact that, our Meteorological Department can actually focus better, yesterday. That is because it would have actually happened. One thing that everybody needs to understand could be, and I want to imagine that the Minister here could tell us, they may not be having sufficient modern machines to actually scientifically predict the weather. The world over, economies that depend on agriculture, like ours, are actually dependent upon a proper, scientific and accurate weather forecast. Now, if they can only forecast yesterday after it has happened, it means, therefore, that it is irrelevant to have that department! It is extremely primitive! I have seen people carrying umbrellas after they have said: \"Manyunyu na rasha rasha za mvua, na manyunyu ya pale napale!\" When you come to town---"
}