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{
    "id": 212348,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/212348/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 209,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Khaniri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 171,
        "legal_name": "George Munyasa Khaniri",
        "slug": "george-khaniri"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity. I do not have much time but I just want to take this opportunity, first of all, to congratulate the Minister, Mr. Nyachae, for his eloquence and the manner in which he is steering this Ministry. We must say that we are very happy, and are satisfied with what he is doing with the little resources that he is getting. This is a very important Ministry that, in my opinion, is under-funded. To allocate Kshs25 billion to maintain our roads and do new roads is almost impossible. This is barely enough to maintain the roads. So, where do we expect him to get money to give us new roads? For this country to attain the economic growth that we have been dreaming about, we must have good infrastructure. We must be ready to invest in infrastructure. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I know the Government is constrained for resources, but I want to tell the Minister to try concessioning some of our highways. Let us contract some companies to maintain the highways, and erect some toll stations to collect funds so that they can maintain those particular highways. I have three points that I want to tell the Minister in order to help him give us some good road network. First, he should ensure that there is proper workmanship when he is doing new roads. The contractors that are contracted to do these roads must be compelled to keep to the required specifications that are in the contracts. Many times the contractors give a shoddy job and we do not get value for our money. Secondly, the issue of drainage must be addressed. We do very good roads and we do not 2790 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 25, 2007 address poor drainage. When water floods these roads, they start developing potholes. Thirdly, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the law of axle load and over-loading must be strictly enforced to ensure that we do not have over-loaded trucks on our roads. Most of the times these trucks are not even Kenyan trucks. These are trucks from a neighbouring country. Therefore, we want to ask that this law must be applied to the letter. Just before I finish, I want to remind the Minister - I raised this issue in this House through a Parliamentary Question - about the Gambogi-Serem Road, which was done half way. The Minister gave me an answer that we were getting some funds from the Chinese Republic to complete this road. That was last year and I did not see anything in the Budget for this, and I just want to request him to address this matter. There is also the Majengo-Serem Road about which the Minister, himself, told me that he would look for funds to see if he could upgrade it. I have not seen anything in the Budget, and I want to request him that he provides funds for that particular road. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}