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"id": 218499,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/218499/?format=api",
"text_counter": 234,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Nyachae",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Roads and Public Works",
"speaker": {
"id": 342,
"legal_name": "Simeon Nyachae",
"slug": "simeon-nyachae"
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"content": "If we transfer our own officers from the weighbridge, he will not go to the Head office or go and work any where else. He will resign because the illicit money that they get there is several times more than what the payslip shows. So, we cannot deny that corruption at our weighbridges is a very serious problem and we have to deal with this. However, to me, what I have in mind is that I want to, first of all, start with a gazettement which is going to say, \"For road so-and-so, the weight of a vehicle which will be allowed on that road will be up to so many tonnes and no more.\" Forget about the weighbridge! If that vehicle is beyond that tonnage, then it has to be confiscated. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to the fines, if you look at the law, you will find that the transporters can afford to pay the fines. In fact, they do not have to go to court. They will only send a driver and tell him, \"Go and pay this fine.\" This is because it is so little. So, this has to be addressed. Right now, I am in touch with the Ministry of Transport to agree with me that this is what we are going to do. It is being done in other countries like India where drivers of June 13, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1815 vehicles know which roads to follow. They know which roads they cannot use. But here, a few rich people with huge vehicles are ruining all these roads and the taxpayer is expected to repair them. So, it is a much bigger problem than we are debating here. However, I think we will overcome that problem, anyway. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of capacity building in this country is a very urgent matter. If you talk of cowboy contractors and say, \"Those who were there during the last regime were cowboy contracts and so deregister all of them and do not give them contracts\", you will have no contractors. It is the same people. You cannot believe it, but right now, we are dealing with a problem of cartels. They are so few that they can meet when you are going to tender and say: \"Do not quote below this; now let us compete from this price to that price\"; they decide wewendiyo -- I am sorry I was going to use two languages, I apologise. They may agree as follows: \"This road, you are the one who is going to quote the lowest figure within the bracket we have agreed on. You will take that road. Then, next time, you will be higher and so and so will take another road\". All these games are there now, because these people are so few. Our own contractors, the Kenyan or African contractors have let us down. They are not serious about growing. You give them work, they are the ones who delay it. They abandon the work. Even right now, I am having some who have run away from the roads. You give them work, and you cannot see them. Somebody was given Enterprise Road a year ago and he has not even stepped there. This week, I was checking up another African contractor, somewhere in Kieni East. He was given a road 18 months ago. When I was checking, even the equipment is not there; not one single piece of equipment. Yet they want to say: \"I am an African a contractor\". You call them to the Kenya School of Monetary Studies to discuss things; they all agree with you; the following day, they have gone somewhere else. All that they want is the initial mobilisation money. Once they get that, they do not move on site. I know it is a very unpopular thing to get rid of our own people, but they are a big problem. We bought vehicles and machinery and put them in regions. We said if our own contractors do not have enough equipment, they can hire that equipment. The machines are there, they are not even able to hire them, yet they have received mobilisation money. What do I do? The only alternative is to get rid of them. The same thing applies to our own engineers. You are talking about people; somebody used a terminology I have never heard of before, \"eatology\". I think he is the \"Speaker\" now. The truth of the matter is that if people were trained to \"eat\" for so many years, and you now want to ask them to make their stomachs small, I think the only way you can make them accept that their stomachs must be small is to have replacements. Do we have additional engineers to replace them? Once they see that threat, then they will behave. But so long as they know that if we get rid of them there is no other engineer, I don't know where we are going to get them. I have just over 153 engineers. I need almost 300, so that I can suspend some and utilise some, then they will become disciplined. So, we have certain ideas about what to do, but it is not easy to apply them. On the labour based-idea, that is something I launched a month and a half ago under the Roads 2000 Programme. We are encouraging that almost in every district. Right now, we have more than 35 districts covered by this, and we are spreading it to all the districts in the country, so that our young people can also be involved. Now, there is something called \"fly-overs\". These fly-overs are very useful, particularly in urban areas like in Nairobi. The plans are there, but let me tell you that if you want to build fly- overs, they are very expensive. We need the money. Right now, I am not in a position to promise that we can start building fly-overs unless there is a special Vote for fly-overs in certain cities like Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and Nakuru. These fly-overs can decongest traffic. They can help, 1816 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 13, 2007 even more than the by-passes. But I am afraid that the amount of money--- Fly-overs cannot be done using bitumen; they have to be done using concrete. You can imagine the price per cubic foot. I would like to talk about the pay packages for officers. I am not quite sure that it is a better pay package that makes someone efficient. What makes anybody efficient, in my view, is that, first, if you are a professional, you must be proud of your profession. Two; you must be proud of the results of your performance. It is not a question of your stomach first and then your profession comes second. So, to me, we have to understand that pay packages are not only for engineers or professionals. Even the ordinary person has got a stomach as well. The moment you increase wages and think that you are going to make other people efficient, what will happen to the ordinary person? Better pay packages must go even to the farmers. They also want something better. So, to me, something should be given in the form of a reward; when one has performed his or her duty well. The engineers, themselves, should be able to say: \"We deserve better because we have improved the economy. The roads are now better, hence, there is less expenditure on the roads. From there, take care of us.\" That is what should be done. As I said, we have stationed machines for hire in 16 regions. But we will add more machines."
}