HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 226102,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/226102/?format=api",
"text_counter": 228,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Githae",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 159,
"legal_name": "Robinson Njeru Githae",
"slug": "robinson-githae"
},
"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, on 10th April, 2007, the hon. Member for Kisumu Rural, Prof. Anyang'-Nyong'o sought a Ministerial Statement on the status of the Rift Valley Railways (RVR). I am, therefore, pleased to give the following Ministerial Statement. First, he wanted to know the position of the RVR given the many court cases that are facing the RVR-Uganda. In response, I would like to say that there are no court cases in Uganda involving the RVR-Uganda or RVR-Kenya which are the two companies the governments of Uganda and Kenya signed concession agreements with, to operate their national railways. There is also no court case involving RVR Investments which is the holding company for both RVR-Uganda and RVR- Kenya. The matter before the High Court of Uganda is between the shareholders of RVR Investments; namely Sheltam Railway Company on one hand, Mirambo Holdings of Tanzania and Prime Fuels of Kenya on the other hand. So, this is purely a shareholding agreement that has no effect on the concessionaire. On the second issue, the hon. Member sought to know how we can guarantee and protect public interest in the former Kenya Railways Corporation (KR), given the fact that some properties and interests of the workers are still not yet guaranteed. In response, I would like to say as follows:- In respect of properties, I wish to clarify that the KR is still a parastatal fully owned by the Government of Kenya as provided under the Kenya Railways Act, Cap.397. All the properties conceded to the concessionaire remain the property of the KR. The concessionaire agreement April 17, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 655 provides the concessionaire right to manage and operate the said assets and such other as they may procure from time to time to enable him to meet his daily business requirements and comply with performance target stipulated in the concessionaire agreement. Indeed, even some of the assets to be financed by the concessionaire and approved by the KR will become conceded assets financed by the concessionaire and, therefore, be taken over by the KR at the end of the term of the concession. For this purpose, the KR's revised core mandate is to monitor and regulate the performance of the concession company. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in respect of the workers, all the historical pension liability of the KR staff and those staff transferred to the concessionaire from the previous service with the KR was taken over by the Kenya Railways Staff Retirement Benefits Scheme upon transfer of assets of value equivalent to KR Pension Liability as determined by an independent actuarial consultant to the KR Staff Retirement Benefit Retirement Scheme. Retrenched workers are being paid their retrenchment dues in full, prior to separation. On the third issue, he wanted to know the status of the efficiency of the RVR in service delivery, given the fact that thousands and thousands of containers destined for the market in Uganda have been compounding at the port of Mombasa, thereby frustrating the transaction of business in the East African Region. In response, I would like to say that we are a bit disappointed by the performance of the RVR in terms of freight throughout. This is so because in the first three months; that is, from 1st November, 2006 to 31st January, 2007, since they took over, the operations of the railways declined by 6.5 per cent from 433,000 tonnes to 405,000 tonnes prior to the month of take over by the RVR. Similarly, the freight haulage in terms of net tonne-kilometres also declined marginally by 3 per cent from 0.3397 billion net tonne-kilometres to 0.3297 billion net tonne-kilometres. However, the gross income generated by the RVR in the period was higher than the KR revenue in the three months prior to the concession. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the deteriorating performance is largely as a result of back-log in the maintenance of locomotives, wagons and infrastructure that arose from lack of capital investment by the KR for many years due to financial constraints. The RVR is yet to start investment, as expected, partly from the need to undertake a comprehensive needs assessment and also the time lag required for ordering, delivering and installing critical investment inputs. Resulting from the above, coupled with the 16 per cent increase in daily demand for containers, the RVR has been unable to meet the traffic demand on offer at the port of Mombasa. However, within the constraints obtaining, the RVR and the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) are examining ways and means of improving efficiency of operators to increase the up-take of cargo from the port for up country destinations. Thank you."
}