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"speaker_name": "Mr. Mungatana",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs",
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"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to make a few remarks on this Bill. First, may I congratulate the Minister for upgrading our law to the status it is in now. From 4,000 BC when we had roads in current Iraq and the current transformation of road advanced, there has been transformation in law. Unfortunately, for us the development of the law has not been as fast as it should be. Therefore, I want to say that the Minister has done a good job. Every Minister leaves a mark in the Ministry he or she serves in. In this particular one, the Kenya Roads Bill is a really good development. But, every good development can be made better. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I just want to make a few remarks. I want to zero-in on Clause 43. This clause gives us the annual report on the status of roads in this country that is supposed to be submitted by each Authority. If you look at what the Minister is expect to receive, apart from subclause 2(g), most of the others are really routine things. I want to suggest that in this country, for us to say we have a proper report of the annual status of roads every year, this report must include; status of traffic flow in the country because this is a thing that affects us. Most legislators who have spoken have said we have a problem with the way we waste man-hours on our roads. This must be included in this report. Traffic jams which is happening across the country must also be included. What is the status of major road works maintenance in the country? This must be contained in the annual report that is supposed to be submitted to the Minister. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, another thing that has been left out is the safety aspect. If you look at the National Roads Authority of Australia; where I believe part of the thinking in this Bill has been borrowed, the safety of roads is a primary duty of the National Roads Authority. We cannot talk of just building roads. The authority cannot be restricted to just talking about how the roads are. They must tell us what measures they have taken to drastically cut down road fatalities in this country. This must be contained in the report that the Minister receives at the end of the year. 1812 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 13, 2007 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in fact, we have dwelt on the issue of safety. Right now, what we have is the Kenya Road Safety Network, which actually does the campaign, discussion and whatever. It is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). It is not a statutory body that is recognized in any law of this country. This needs to come in here. The safety of people on the roads, as has been put in various imagery expressed here in this House, must be taken seriously. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I see here that the question on the environment has been pushed to the back again. In road construction, the impact of the environment must be stated in the annual report. How has our environment in the countryside, even in the urban centres and towns been affected by new road development that is there? How has it been affected by ongoing road development? What measures to mitigate the negative impact have been put in place? This must be in the report the Minister receives because we do not want to just have the normal kind of thing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the question of archaeology must be considered. I am speaking like this because on your way to Malindi, not very far from the main road, there has been discovered a very ancient tower and excavation is still going on. If we do not have archaeological input, we will lose a big part of our history, because if you put engineers to just go dig and there is no archaeological input, they will see those old things and just drill them away like they do not matter. It is important that we have reports on this so that we can preserve what is our history. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this brings me to Clause 5 of this proposed Bill. Clause 5 establishes the Board of the Authority, and this goes mutatis mutandis to the other authorities as well; the three authorities that have been put up here. The Authority puts up five extra people that the Minister is supposed to appoint, and here, we have somebody with knowledge of the industry, highway engineering, transport economics, urban and regional planning, accountancy or law. Where are the people of environment? They must be represented in this Authority, otherwise, decisions at the highest level would be devoid of serious input on the environment. Where are the archaeologists? I have just referred to the National Roads Authority of Australia. They have employed 27 permanent archaeologists on that Board. We need to have a change. The Minister needs to consider increasing the membership of this Board, and this goes to the other boards as well that are in the rural areas and also the other authorities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am very happy that in Clause 3, although the authorities have been made independent, the Minister has had the presence of mind to give them the power to borrow money, but subject to consultation with the Treasury and the Ministry. I think that was wonderful, because we may have authorities that may end up giving us problems in future. There is another issue about the functions of these authorities which are captured in both the National Roads Authority, the Rural Roads Authority and the Urban Roads Authority. One of the functions I thought should be included is the function of public awareness and education on the maintenance and taking care of our roads. It is not enough to pass laws when we know, as legislators, that a lot of what we pass is not known outside there in the rural areas. For instance, the campaign of saying: \"If you get out of your house, switch off your lights\" or \"Please take care of energy or water\" has had a major impact. It makes Kenyans think in a different way. One of the functions of the Authority must be public education. They must go to the radios, television and the Media in general and teach the public to take care of our roads. Those investors who invest in overweight vehicles or who overload will have difficulties. This is because they already know in their minds, for it would have been repeated to them for the last two to three years. They will have difficulties disobeying that law, including even the people who load and the police who man the axle load weight control areas. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think public awareness and education is extremely important as far as changing the culture of taking care of our roads is concerned. It is important that June 13, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1813 it is included and the Minister must---"
}