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{
    "id": 226193,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/226193/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 319,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Midiwo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 184,
        "legal_name": "Washington Jakoyo Midiwo",
        "slug": "jakoyo-midiwo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to withdraw that and say that for as long as the system we are using remains in place, the roads engineers will continue plundering the resources of this country. They are the ones who are now controlling most of the wealth that belongs to this country. The amount of money which is allocated to construct roads in any district, including mine and yours, is enough to do those roads, any day, for five years, but because these engineers own the construction companies---They have now come up with a new thing. They say that the Government has bought equipment and placed them in every province. At the province, the engineers say they are doing an in-house job. The levels of corruption in the Ministry of Roads and Public Works is worse than ever. In fact, it is worse than it was during the KANU Government. We need to fight it because we cannot achieve development without good infrastructure in place. We must work on our dilapidated infrastructure in this country. This can only be done with an organised system of resource allocation and expenditure. In our case, we have a system which is working. That is the devolution of funds through the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF). This is a good thing that has happened during the NARC era. I think it will cure the disease contained in this Report. Civil servants in this country have shown ineptitude in management of our resources. We cannot find this ineptitude in CDF committees throughout the country. We need to go that direction. There is need for us to send money that goes to the District Road Committees (DRC) to the constituencies. Even if the Members of Parliament are not involved, we can have a committee that they can supervise. This will work wonders just like the CDF. May I hasten to add that roads done using CDF money, even in my constituency, look far much better than roads these road engineers purport to be doing year in, year out. We should not be in the business of enriching civil servants who we have entrusted to help our people. The issue of corruption in the road sector and payment of pending bills must be taken up by the Government. This is an issue that we must seriously look into. We cannot achieve much in terms of development if we continue this way. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government cannot sit back and watch as we make noise on the issue of the expansion the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). Even though we look like noise makers, as they call us, we talk about a tender that was varied from Kshs800 million to Kshs10 billion without re-tendering process. If that is not corruption, I would wish to be born again, so that in my next life, I get to know what corruption is all about. There is no way, a Government can abrogate its own rules and expect us, as the watchmen of the people, to April 17, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 679 keep quiet. The idea of expansion of the JKIA is good. However, the corruption there must be stopped. The variation of tenders must stop. There must be re-tendering, so that people know and the issues are made public. There is no way a tender can be varied from Kshs800 million to Kshs10 billion without anybody being greased."
}