Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 229510,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/229510/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 155,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Murungaru",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 227,
        "legal_name": "Christopher Ndarathi Murungaru",
        "slug": "christopher-murungaru"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think that the Minister for Local Government has also noticed that we have a problem in the countryside. The President mentioned in his Speech that the Government has undertaken a programme of modernising market centres and, indeed, that has started. However, if you travelled around our countryside, especially the part of the country where I 96 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES March 22, 2007 come from, along the main roads, every other kilometre, there is a small shop and a butchery and a tea kiosk that is coming up. This is happening in the rural areas along all the major roads. This is a major cause of accidents along our highways. You will realise that structures are coming up that appear like townships. They are not, in the actual sense, townships. They are not planned and neither are they provided for. I would like to urge the Minister for Local Government, under whom those county and urban councils fall, to look into this question of planning market centres and urban centres. Let him give guidelines as to how these can be developed and how they can come up. New districts have been created by the President and we are grateful that these structures have been created to bring administration closer to the people. Indeed, in Nyeri, we have received an additional district. We appreciate and are happy for that. However, I hope that this time round, the Government is not going to burden wananchi with the development of the physical infrastructure to accommodate the new district administration. I would like to urge the Government to come up with a comprehensive plan of building or developing the infrastructure to provide administration facilities for the new districts. In this regard, I would like to suggest to the Government that the time for public-private partnerships is now. This is a very good opportunity to test that concept. I urge the Government to go into the market and, indeed, help our building developers to grow by giving them the contracts to develop the new district headquarters and pay for these developments over a period of time. That way, our District Commissioners (DCs) and other departmental heads will have the facilities from which to serve people and the Government will not be burdened by budgetary constraints. Finally, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have talked about the Constitution. I want to urge both sides of the House that we drop our grandstanding. Let us dialogue and talk about the Constitution because it is ours and the country is ours too. Whether it is minimum or maximum reforms, they are all ours. We need to approach the matter as such. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support."
}