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"id": 212673,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Akaranga",
"speaker_title": "The Minister of State for Public Service",
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"id": 299,
"legal_name": "Moses Epainitous Akaranga",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me also take this opportunity to support this Vote. First, I want to thank the Minister in charge of this Ministry, Mr. Nyachae, for the good work he is doing. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, as you are aware, we have placed all our employees on performance contracts. Under this programme, work is programmed in such a way that each person has to achieve certain targets. I want to state in this House that employees in the Ministry of Roads and Public Works are doing a good job. In, at least, every district countrywide, there are certain July 24, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2715 road works being undertaken. I know that the Ministry is constrained because of the few contractors that we have in the country, especially local ones. Therefore, we may continue blaming the Ministry but let me assure this House that the problem is that, as a country, we have few contractors in the roads sector. So, if our people could come up and show some interest in road construction, the Ministry is prepared to allocate funds for road works.The Ministry does not have enough engineers. That is something that I have discussed with my colleague, so that he could send a proposal to my Ministry. I will approve that proposal so that we could have enough engineers to supervise the works that are being done in this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in every market, we must have a mad man. Members have complained about certain engineers in various districts. I agree that some of them are not up to standard. But we are trying to phase them out. When we employ some people, some of those engineers who are not working or performing will definitely be phased out. Recently, I had a meeting with the Permanent Secretaries in Mombasa. I told them that this time, when we release the results of the performance contracts in October, those ones who will not have achieved--- We might part ways. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, real work on our roads started when my mentor, Mr. Nyachae, assumed the powers in that Ministry. The road which goes to Kisumu, the one which my colleagues are complaining about from time to time, would have been completed a long time ago. But because of certain bureaucracies, which started many years ago, there were certain delays. But you can see that something is being done. I know that, perhaps, before the end of next year, that road will have been finished. It will be good news because most hon. Members from the other side of the country fly to Kisumu. They do not use that road. That road is in bad shape. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank the Ministry because it has set aside funds for a road in my constituency the Kisa-Khumusalaba Road. The construction of that road will start soon. I am happy because His Excellency the President is visiting our district next month. In his own wisdom, he has agreed to launch that road on 12th August, 2007. I would also like to request the Ministry to also consider the roads from Majengo to Luanda and Chavakali to Kaimosi. I have a Land Cruiser. But when I drove it the other day on the Majengo-Luanda Road, it had two punctures. There are so many potholes on that road. I request my colleague to allocate some funds to do something on that road. After all, it is a very short stretch. That is not a big problem. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you will agree with me that the economy of any country depends on a good road network. Most of the feeder roads are not murramed. We need to do something so that we could gravel most of those feeder roads. They are going to help our farmers and our people. Kenya will never be the same again! Most of our roads are being messed up by heavy commercial vehicles. I do not know what we are going to do with those heavy commercial vehicles. We repair our roads and just after two months, there are potholes just because of overloading the heavy commercial vehicles. Something has to be done to ensure that there is restriction on the usage of those roads by heavy commercial vehicles. Lastly, we might blame the Ministry, but the procurement procedures in this country are terrible. These procurement processes were approved by this House. We debate on things, approve them in this House, but, at the end of the day, we continue complaining about the same things. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, recently when I met the Permanent Secretaries in Mombasa, I directed them to look into our procurement procedures. If you look at the bureaucracy in the procurement process, it is terrible. It takes almost three to six months just to procure one item. How will work continue if it takes that long? We want to challenge the procedures. I want to assure this House, as the Minister in charge of Public Service, we will do something. I urge this House to support us when we bring amendments to procurement processes so that we help Kenyans. We hope to do so very soon. 2716 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 24, 2007 Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}