HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 207960,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/207960/?format=api",
"text_counter": 170,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Muturi",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 215,
"legal_name": "Justin Bedan Njoka Muturi",
"slug": "justin-muturi"
},
"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to say a few words of encouragement to the Minister and Ministry of Water and Irrigation. From the outset, I want to say that I support. As my colleagues pointed out, it really baffles me that a Ministry as critical as this one can get an allocation of only Kshs15 billion. If we are serious about economic take off in this country, we must give sufficient financial allocation to the key Ministries. In my view, the Ministry of Water and Irrigation is one such Ministry. 3308 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 21, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, having said that, let me point out that there are certain operations within the Ministry that leave a lot to be desired. These include the Mount Kenya East Project. In as much as I know that the project is funded by donors, about three years ago, there was some launch witnessed by the immediate occupier of that docket who is seated directly opposite me, hon. Martha Karua in Embu. There was a lot of excitement. Several vehicles were donated and we were even taken photographs. I took part even in test driving one of the vehicles. I did not take part in riding motorcycles. After that fanfare, the Minister gave an extremely eloquent speech regarding the key components of the project. However, what surprises me today is that if you go to the ground, there is absolutely nothing. All that we see are those vehicles on weekends being driven. There is something they call focal development point or area in the villages. They will go and call villagers to a baraza and then the next thing we see are invoices. Those villagers are said to have been undergoing training. I have seen villagers and we have raised this issue in our District Development Committee (DDC). However, there is no adequate response. It is a shame. That money is not for free. Nothing is being done. However, every now and then, villagers are being told that they spent so much and they keep asking on what they spent that money. I would ask the Minister to put his foot down and ensure that the Mount Kenya East Project becomes a reality on the ground. We do not want to see people riding all over and calling villagers for meetings. Those people know enough. Start implementing specific projects. If it is about irrigation, let them do irrigation. They talk about everything covering a radius of about five kilometres. If you go to the areas targeted, it is a pity. I, therefore, call upon the Minister and his team to really look into the issue of making the project realistic to the intended beneficiaries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another organisation that I find a bit strange is the Water Services Trust Fund. Again, in this fund, if I may recall correctly, we had been told at one point that there was about Kshs1 billion or Kshs2 billion earmarked for this fund. The fund was involved in another exercise of mapping out the country and some areas were declared not qualified to receive any form of funding from it. So, we start wondering what we are now doing. Are we doing lopsided development? They mapped areas and said this location does not qualify to receive funding from the Water Services Trust Fund. They went on to invite people to implement projects. That is where they went wrong either by design or by default. I have a case in my own constituency called Kanywambora Water Project. They went and got some briefcase fellow from Chuka called Mideva and gave him all the money. He called villagers to buy a few bags of cement even when there were no pipes. Now the cement has gone to waste because two years down the road there is nothing. It is now having to be redesigned. I think the Minister should again see to it that the fund operates in a manner that is transparent. It should avoid dealing with quacks and former members of staff of the Ministry because many of them are used to the old ways. They are the ones who resigned or who were sacked and formed funny Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and now they are coming back to the fund to be given contracts. I can talk about three or four such projects by that particular organisation and nothing has been carried on to completion. I think the Minister should really see to it that they do something more important. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would want to commend the work done by the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation (NWCPC). However, I am afraid, looking at the money that the Minister spoke about, which is Kshs793 million for rehabilitation and development of new projects, including I believe, investigation on water sources, this amount will obviously not be sufficient for that corporation. It is the one that should drive the Ministry, particularly in the area of borehole drilling and such like areas having removed it from the former functions that it was doing and also having de-linked it from some of the water projects like the Coast Water Supply which is under another water group. August 21, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3309 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am a bit worried about the new irrigation schemes which the Minister referred to as the smallholder ones. My worry here is whether the Minister could actually consider doing this in a manner that is equitable. If only to address it in a small way, some element of affirmative action, so that these smallholder new irrigation schemes can be located and spread out in various parts of the country. More particularly to my constituency, because it is not affirmative action about women. This is about water and irrigation. It is important that we have this form of affirmative action being spread out across the board. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is something which I would like the Ministry to get slightly more serious about. We have a number of NGOs. Specifically, I want to refer to the faith-based NGOs. We have one such NGO in my area, namely, the Catholic Diocese of Embu, which is doing a commendable job. It is involved in the area of investigation and development of water projects in various parts of its jurisdiction, and more particularly in my constituency. However, when we attend meetings where those NGOs give progress reports about the work that they do, you never find any form of information from the Ministry's staff. It is like they are permanently blank. I thought the policy should be that when those providers go to the various areas, they do so through the line Ministries, so that there can be linkage. I would like the Ministry to require the various water providers to have some linkage with them, so that, at least, for instance, when I look at what services are going to be provided in my district, there is no duplication, so that what the Ministry is going to do and what those NGOs are doing is not duplicated, so that there could be a good spread in various parts so as to be able to cover many areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I commend the Minister for saying that he intends to double the area under irrigation from the current 110,000 hectares to 220,000 hectares, and the area under drainage from 30,000 hectares to 90,000 hectares. However, I observe that the planned coverage is intended to be achieved by the year 2012. I think the Minister should realise that this is too ambitious an objective for his Ministry to achieve. We would, however, commend him. It is good to be futuristic in this way, if only he can only able to get sufficient resources allocated to his Ministry, because there is no point in making such projections if the Treasury does not give the Ministry what it requires. For the Ministry to be able to achieve this objective, it requires adequate resource allocation. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}