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"id": 218428,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Sungu",
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"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "Gor Eric Sungu",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to also support this Bill, and to say that it is long overdue. I want to associate myself with the remarks made by my colleagues who have spoken before me. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, to establish a National Highways Authority, a Rural Roads Authority and an Urban Roads Authority is something that can help streamline the operations of the roads sector in this country. This will give them the responsibility for management, development, rehabilitation and maintenance of these roads. But before I say that, let me just say that there is one area in the roads sector which is of concern to most of us, and which has been mentioned by most of my colleagues. That is that, if doctors were like engineers, we would all be dead. These engineers do not hesitate to use their vast technical knowledge to cheat us and do shoddy roads. Even at the very lowest level in the constituencies where we sit in the District Roads Committees, you will find that a road that may be allocated Ksh3 million, half of that money will not go towards that road, and you can never ever argue with them at the same level and win the argument, because they know all the facts, how to calculate the volume and what to say, the force to work, sijui nini ; all kinds of things. I want to say that until the day when members of the engineering fraternity come to the realisation that Kenyans need them to give them their best as far as their profession is concerned, we will not get anywhere, however many authorities we create. It takes only one person to make a difference, and the whole lot of them, with the exception of a few, are really doing us a disservice. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Bill will give the authorities the power to acquire land, ensure that road reserves are well maintained, and that buildings do not come up. Only a few years back, we made this tremendous effort to remove buildings from road reserves. This effort died where it started, after a lot of publicity. I want to support the Ministry. There should be no building on a road reserve, even if it is in my constituency, because the road reserve is where you have room for other development infrastructure like power lines and so on. You find people June 13, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1799 building right up to the edge of the road, yet it is even dangerous for them. So, I want to support that. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to support the fact that compensation under this law when roads personnel enter somebody's land to survey, or to cut trees or remove pipes and so on; that is all right, because compensation can be agreed between the parties; that should be fairly obvious. But what worries me is this issue of liability. I come from a background of insurance. I know that in the United Kingdom, they have the National Roads Authority and the Highway Code. If a road authority is responsible for the construction, maintenance and repair of a road, and a pothole appears on it, and they are not able to repair in time, and an accident occurs, that authority is held responsible for that accident. There are many cases that have been decided in courts, and as an insurance man, I studied these cases, and I know for sure that it is not right. If we are going to give these authorities power over these roads; power to maintain, power to construct and all the other powers, they must also, in equality, be liable if there is anything wrong with the work that is done. We know for certain that a lot of accidents occur in this country because of the poor state of the roads. I want to appeal to my--- I do not want to call him my uncle because his sons are my friends and, therefore, he is like a father to me. The roads in the western part of this country, even if you want to go via the Mara and Narok, even if you go from here, the moment you reach Gilgil, you go to Nakuru and then to Mau Summit, Eldoret, Kisumu, and to Kisii, there is absolutely no road. I want to tell you that the other day, we had a very good occasion to welcome the President of this Republic and five other heads of government and almost the entire Government was in Kisumu. Do you know how shameful it was to learn that the Presidential limousine, that nice Mercedes Benz car had to be put on a train to be transported to Kisumu because the road is so bad that it could not reach Kisumu? That is a shame to this country. That kind of situation should not arise. Even if the road is going to be reconstructed, they should, at least, carry out temporary repairs to allow people like me, who like travelling on the road, to travel through it. I know it is not western Kenya only that is affected. I also know that if you are going to Meru, you will have problems. Many parts of this country have problems. In that light, we want to support this Bill, but we want to urge the Minister to exercise due authority over his officers to ensure that some of this work is done. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is no point flogging a dead horse. This Bill has been well debated in a well informed manner, and I do not want to take the time of the House any more. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}