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"id": 218679,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/218679/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
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"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was saying that this Bill is actually long overdue and as the memorandum says, the principal object is to establish three roads authorities; June 12, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1727 the Kenya National Highways Authority, the Kenya Rural Roads Authority and the Kenya Urban Roads Authority and provides for their powers and functions. This is basically meant to provide an efficient way of managing the construction and maintenance of our roads in the country. The roads are very important to an economy. The roads provide for mobility and communication in the country. Therefore, they are very important. Our national road network today is about 150,000 kilometres, out of which, about 10,000 kilometres are paved roads. By international standards, that is a very small portion of the roads which are paved. China constructs 10,000 kilometres of paved roads annually. Since the time that this nation of Kenya was created, we have only managed to pave what China paves each and every year. That is a very strong statement about our under-development. The status of our roads at the moment is very poor. As somebody who had the opportunity to be in the Ministry, I appreciate the reasons why. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when we took over in 2003, of our total road network, only 27 per cent was in a motorable condition and 47 per cent had completely collapsed requiring a complete reconstruction. The reason is because of the neglect of maintenance. As a result of the disagreement between the Government and the donor community since the early 1990s, the Government was not able to access cheap capital on the international financial market and as a result, the Government resorted to using the funds which were meant for maintenance purposes, for reconstruction. Therefore, maintenance was neglected and a number of roads completely collapsed, requiring full reconstruction. Construction and maintenance of Roads is a very capital-intensive activity and, therefore, requires a lot of capital. Therefore, it is necessary, and I am happy that the Government is moving towards trying to get the private sector capital investment in road construction. A study which was done established that concessioning is a viable undertaking in this country and that conventional tolling is only viable in the Northern Corridor which runs from the Port of Mombasa to the border with Uganda. I am happy to learn that the Ministry is moving towards this end of introducing concession and that we may have our first concession road soon. If that happens, the Government is going to be able to release the funding that is currently being used to maintain the Northern Corridor for construction of rural access roads. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, these authorities are necessary in the sense that they are going to provide for a very strategic approach in construction and maintenance of roads. We have a National Highways Authority and then we have an authority that deals purely with rural roads and another one that deals with urban roads. We must admit that our local authorities have completely failed. You will find that the only roads in the City of Nairobi which are motorable are the ones which are under the maintenance of the Ministry of Roads and Public Works. Hon. Members may not know. For example Uhuru Highway, Ngong Road, Lang'ata Road, Jogoo Road, Kangundo Road, Kiambu Road and Thika Road are under the Ministry of Roads and Public Works. Sometimes people give credit to the City Council when they do not deserve it. The credit actually should go to the Ministry of Roads and Public Works. If we did not have the Ministry of Roads and Public Works working in Nairobi City, most of the roads that you see today would be in a very sorry state. The same thing can be said of the Mombasa and Kisumu cities and all the other major urban centres. Recently, when there was the world cross-country championship in Mombasa, the Government had to move in to beautify the City of Mombasa. You would find that a contractor is appointed in a way that does not conform with the established structures of the Ministry of Roads and Public Works. In the end, the Ministry is blamed. I sympathise with the Minister, because he is unfairly being criticized for a responsibility which is not his. Some Ministries have failed and, therefore, they are meddling in the affairs of other Ministries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was surprised to see the Government Spokesman going to inspect a road. I wonder what was there to be spoken about the road in Mombasa City. That is not his responsibility. But, basically, because of the failure and meddling, we have this kind 1728 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES June 12, 2007 of thing happening in our country today. Therefore, it is important that we have an authority that is fully responsible for the supervision of the construction of roads within our local authorities. The authority should ensure that we have common and consistent standards that must be met by all the local authorities. It should ensure that funding is also provided for the purposes of construction and maintenance of those roads. Secondly, we need a similar authority for our rural access roads, which are very important for the rural economy. This is because it is those roads that enable our farmers to take their produce to the markets. In many parts of the country, roads have become impassable, particularly, during the rainy season. So, it is important that we have an authority that is fully responsible for the construction and maintenance of those roads. The National Highway Authority will deal only with national highways and trunk roads. So, I understand the importance of this structure. It is a structure that is already operating in many other countries. Therefore, I am happy that this Bill is now before this House. I would like to appeal to hon. Members to support it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is a problem with regard to contracting of road works in our country. We still continue to use the old traditional method of contracting, which delays the construction of roads in the country. If we use the old traditional method of contracting, it takes a minimum of 48 months from the time that a decision is made that we want to construct a road, to the time that the contractor actually moves on site, in order to begin construction. First, we begin with the feasibility study. Then, we come up with detailed engineering drawings, prepare tender documents, advertise the contract, adjudicate and award the tenders. By the time we are through with these stages - because we allow, for example, for objections and so on - 48 months will have lapsed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the modern method of contracting is called design and build. This method was started in Japan, but it has now been adapted even by some countries in the West. For example, it is now being used even in Britain. Our neighbour, Tanzania, also uses it. Tanzania has made faster progress in terms of road construction than ourselves. When I went to Tanzania, I was surprised. I asked my Tanzanian counterparts to give me the experts to come and train our own officers here on this method of design-and- construct. Those officers came here and spent one week with our experts here. But, unfortunately, most of the officers that we have here are old \"dogs.\" They say: \"You cannot teach an old dog new tricks.\" They are much more comfortable with the methods that they are used to. When the tender documents are prepared, there is what we call Bill No.1. That Bill No.1 is usually very heavy. It actually involves a very heavy payment to the contractor. There is a lot which is put in this Bill that the contractor does not need at all. Take, for example, the construction of Mbagathi Way using concrete, from the City Mortuary down to the roundabout near the Wilson Airport. That construction has taken over one year, which is longer than it was expected, yet that road is in the City. Why should somebody provide for a site office, when the contractor can be working from his office? Then, you will find four brand new pick-ups for supervision of the work on Mbagathi Way. You can even supervise the work on foot. Those are some of the things which are included in Bill No.1. They are completely ridiculous. Those are the things that actually inflate the cost of construction. You will be amazed by the kind of things that you are told by the contractors, when you actually dare to go into details and ask them why the construction costs so much. For example, if you tell them to repair the highway from Mombasa Airport to Magongo, they will give you some outrageous quotations. But there is a system which is called design and construct. The Government or client only gives the specifications and says: \"I want to construct a highway from point \"A\" to point \"B\", which is a distance of so many kilometres; to these specifications.\" Once the specifications have been given, then bids are invited. The contractors will come and carry out their own survey. Then, they will give you quotations by saying: \"I will construct that highway at so much.\" Then, you negotiate with one of those contractors and award the contract. June 12, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1729 The contractor is, then, the one who hires the design engineer. That is why it is called design and construct. The design engineer will come and maybe, design the first ten kilometres, so that the contractor can start work. He then continues designing as the contractor is working. So, the design is part of the contracting work. In that way, within six months from the time you decide to construct a road, the contractor will be on site. If we use this method, we will be able to construct so many highways in this country. I wish that this method could be properly institutionalised in our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is the issue of payment to contractors. When I joined the Ministry, I found that there were so many pending bills. They were accumulating, basically, because of the red tape and corruption in the system. You would find that from the time that the contractor submits his bill for payment, to the time that he is paid, it would go through 22 signatures. Each signature is a toll station. So, you would find that some contractors had even hired consultants who would move around the Ministry looking for signatures, so that they could be paid. Of course, I cancelled a number of those signatures and gave instructions, that the time that a contractor submits his bill for payment to the time that he is paid, should be a maximum of 21 days. That delay is what was causing the accumulation of pending bills. You would find that a contractor who submitted a bill last year, for example, has not been paid, whereas, the one who submitted his bill last month has already been paid, because he has been able to have his process hastened. The Ministry needs to look into the issue of cowboy contractors, because some contractors act as a cartel among themselves. There is what is called pre-qualification of contractors. You would see an advertisement in the newspapers saying: \"The Ministry is inviting pre-qualification--- \" That is aimed at eliminating serious competition. The serious competitors are eliminated at that level, so that only a small clique of contractors are left which act as a cartel. Then they agree among themselves on who will get this and that project. So, the others will be higher and then the other ones will get other projects and so forth. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the thing was that it was then much more paying not to complete a project than to complete it because there were good commissions being paid around. That is the reason why we had so many projects started and not completed. I know that the hon. Minister is taking keen interest to ensure that the process that has started is continued. There are very many engineer officers, not only in the Ministry of Roads and Public Works, but in other Ministries, who are doing business with the Government. They have their own companies. They are bidding for construction work because they have got their own construction companies. They are the ones who are advertising for contracts and adjudicating the tenders. They then award them to their companies. Then they are the ones who will go to supervise the works, issue certificates for payments and then go to the Ministry to chase for payments. If that is not a conflict of interest, then I do not know what conflict of interest is."
}