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"id": 212663,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Serut",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Planning and National Development",
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"legal_name": "John Bomet Serut",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Allow me to join my colleagues to thank the Minister for having moved this Vote of the Ministry of Roads and Public Works so ably. I want to thank him for the time he has been in the Ministry. For the one year and a half years he has been in the Ministry, he has run it so ably that whenever we travel in this country, we see a lot of work being done. 2708 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 24, 2007 I want also to thank the Minister for having realised that Mt. Elgon District does not have any passable roads, and during this financial year, he and his officers have decided that some money goes to Mt. Elgon to construct Road D75. Though it was read out as Kamukuyua-Sirisia, this was wrong. I thought it was Kamukuyua-Kaptama-Kopsiro-Namwela Road. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me point out a few things that we have come across at our District Roads Boards (DRBs). Whereas the Ministry officers are working very hard at the Ministry headquarters to improve our road network, I want to say that at the district level, this is not happening. It is not happening because of under-staffing, especially in the department of building whereby we have a lot of work as a result of Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) projects. Even to get the Bill of Quantities (BQs) to be prepared is a nightmare. I want to say that even the constructions under CDF are not being supervised by the Ministry of Roads and Public Works. They have always said that they do not have enough staff. I hope that the Minister has factored in the issue of employing more staff, especially, in that building section. Most of the funds are now being devolved to the constituency and what we are doing as Kenyans, is to deal with the issue of infrastructure, especially the buildings. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, another issue that I want to raise, is the issue of viability of certain projects. I remember in 2003 when I was elected to this House, there was a road which was being constructed in my place. They spent Kshs1.8 million on it. To date, a road of about three kilometres is not yet complete and a total of Kshs1.8 million has been spent. Not even rats can pass on that road. I have been asking myself, who is supposed to identify a road? Who is supposed to carry out a feasibility study on a particular road before it is constructed? Why is the Government constructing roads that cannot be put into good use? We wrote to the Ministry in 2004 but something shocking is that up today, there has not been any response from the Ministry. What has only happened is that the officers who were there, were transferred. That brings in another question; is transfer a punishment? To me a transfer is something normal and as people of Mt. Elgon, we require an answer from the Ministry as to why that money was actually used after the advise from those officers and now it has gone to waste. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is an issue which has been raised by one of my colleagues and I want also to join him. That is the issue of demolition. As I speak today, several market centre buildings have been marked for demolition. Some of these buildings are as old as 70 years or 80 years. They were constructed by some of our grandfathers and today, we are being told that those buildings should be demolished to pave way because they are on road reserves. My question to the Ministry is, when did they become road reserves? It was actually private land donated by the community for purposes of building their small trading centres. A good example is Cheptais Town. A whole line of buildings belonging to over 30 people have been ear-marked for demolition. Who is going to compensate those people? Is the Ministry going to compensate them? I raised that issue in writing to the Ministry in 2004 but up to date, I have not received any communication. My constituents are asking me what is going to happen to their buildings. I want to request the Minister, together with his officers, to give due consideration to Cheptais. We can divert the road instead of demolishing the buildings because it is not a tarmac road. It is a road which is supposed to be gravelled. It can be diverted instead of Kenyans losing their property. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to come to the issue of murraming of roads. That is, maintenance. Most hon. Members here are members of their District Roads Boards. Our work is to decide which roads have to be maintained and at what rate. What happens is that the tendering process is normally done by the officers. But I want to inform the Minister that we have a lot of problems with tendering at the district level. We are not members of the tendering board. The members of the tendering board are Government officers. I do not know who supervises those officers because there seems to be a syndicate that most of the works are given to particular people July 24, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2709 at inflated costs. At the end of the day, most of them are not done. If the work is done, then it is sub-standard. We require some reforms in that area for purposes of ensuring that whatever money that is spent by the Government is spent on a worthy course. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the last issue is the issue of tendering and construction of roads. I am happy as a representative of the people of Mt. Elgon Constituency that one of the roads in my constituency is ear-marked for construction this Financial Year. But as my colleagues have said, the bureaucracy before the actual work takes place is enormous. I am requesting that the Minister, together with his officers, re-look into this issue so that it takes a short period before this construction is actually implemented. I am also a worried man that a contractor who has been given this work has been mentioned here for abandoning some work. If the Ministry is actually aware that there are certain contractors who are not ready to work, why should they be given work? Is there any proper explanation as to why this particular contractor, Kuldan Singh, abandoned a road in Narok and now he is being given another road in Mt. Elgon? That raises some eyebrows. The people of Mt. Elgon are eager and want to see the construction of the road fast-tracked. Let it be done as soon as yesterday. With those few remarks, I beg to support this Vote."
}