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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
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"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to debate on Sessional Paper No. 5 of 2006. This Paper is critical for the development, management and continued improvement of the road network in the country. This is a policy paper that should have come to this House a long time ago. I congratulate the Minister for bringing it, so that we can lay down in black and white the road policy that we want, to guide the growth of this country. You will recall that close to 30 or 40 per cent of Questions brought to this House relate to roads. This shows the important role that roads play in the socio-economic and political lives of Kenyans. Roads are critical in the movement of goods and persons. Above all, roads are absolutely necessary for our day-to-day economic activities. Mr. Deputy Speaker Sir, this Sessional Paper attempts to set out the problems in the road sector, the historical perspective of the sector, how to address those problems and how to make our road network as good as any other in the world. Therefore, it goes without saying - and this Sessional Paper acknowledges it - that the road network in this country is not good. We have a very dilapidated road network. All you need to do to appreciate that fact is to look at the road from Mombasa to Malaba and Busia, which is the key economic artery to this country. From Independence to today, if we had a policy as set out in this Sessional Paper, perhaps we would be having dual carriageways to our neighbours of Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and across the country. It is only with a good road network that we are able to quickly move goods and spur growth. This Sessional Paper sets out several challenges that the road sector faces, including poor maintenance programmes, inadequate finances, corruption et cetera . Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, while dealing with roads, one of the biggest problems that this 3068 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 19, 2006 country has faced is inadequate provision of maintenance funds. Almost all tarmac roads we have had in this country have worn out to the extent of requiring reconstruction. Certainly, the cost of reconstructing a road is not comparable to that of maintaining it. In certain jurisdictions, roads that are paved or tarmacked are routinely re-carpeted every five years. In this country, perhaps, because of inadequate policy framework, inadequate finances or, sometimes, due to sheer negligence, excellent roads are constructed but they eventually wear out to the extent of requiring reconstruction. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, you can see that we are spending a couple of billions of shillings to reconstruct the road from Mai Mahiu to Nakuru. We will equally spend billions of shillings to reconstruct the road from Nakuru to Timboroa. You do not even need to go further. The road from Westlands to Limuru, which, at its construction, was one of the most outstanding and best roads in this country, is wearing out to the extent that we might need to reconstruct it again. Of course, this ends up in funds being wasted, if only we had provided for maintenance. It is with that, that I laud this Sessional Paper because it lays emphasis on periodic and routine maintenance of roads as a policy. In fact, the Minister should go further, after the adoption of this Paper by this House, to bring a Bill here that will make it a mandatory requirement of concerned authorities, be they local authorities or the Central Government, to be compelled by law to maintain roads routinely. Such a provision will always save the country from expending unnecessary monies on reconstruction of roads. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look around the country, you will see that the road through Sagana and Nyeri is under reconstruction. The road from Salama to Bachuma Gate was reconstructed. The road from Kisumu to Bondo is under reconstruction. Many other roads countrywide are under reconstruction just because they were not maintained. If they were maintained, the money being spent on them now would be doing new roads. We would eventually have all the key roads in this country paved. The amount of money we have spent on reconstructing roads would by now have constructed a dual carriageway from the Port of Mombasa to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and to Kampala in Uganda. If you go around Africa, especially in countries that are less endowed with resources than Kenya - like Ghana - and you see the quality of their roads and how those roads are maintained, you will wonder where we went wrong. I hope that after the adoption of the Sessional Paper, we will have a clear maintenance policy for our roads. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, another issue that this Sessional Paper captures, which I hope will be turned into reality, is the fact that road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance is a multi- billion industry in respect of which we need, as a deliberate policy, to have affirmative action for local contractors. This country puts billions of shillings into the road sector. This financial year alone, we have allocated close to Kshs49 billion to the Ministry of Roads and Public Works. Maybe, we should take the route of Malaysia. In Malaysia, no foreign company on its own can be awarded a contract to construct a road without a local component. Not a local component of 10 per cent briefcase carriers who join multinational companies for kickbacks, but rather local components of serious contractors who want to grow. If you get a contract of, say, Kshs5 billion, as a foreign contractor, with a local component controlling 30 per cent, then you have created wealth locally. The local contractor will eventually grow to compete with foreign contractors. This is what Dr. Mahathir Mohammed did in Malaysia. He has developed local entrepreneurship. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we are putting Kshs100 billion in roads in two years and the whole of it is capital flown to Europe, then we are not helping the economy. We are not developing Kenyans. We should have a very pro-active policy as has been captured in this Sessional Paper. We should have an adequate local contracting capacity. We cannot develop this by inviting tenders and bids and setting standards that locals cannot achieve, but by making sure that all foreign companies October 19, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3069 have local partners. This will help us to grow. That is the only way in which we can localise wealth and develop local entrepreneurship. The issue of axle load enforcement has been talked about in this country for so long. I come from Western Province where the trunk road from Kampala passes. Sometimes I wonder - and I hope the Minister is listening to me - when you put a weighbridge at Webuye, 35 kilometres from the border, how do you protect the road between the border and the weighbridge from being damaged? The weighbridge should be at Malaba, which is the entry point. What is the point of putting a weighbridge in Gilgil? What road to do you seek to protect? Weighbridges should be put at the point of entry or exit of the axle load that we are trying to regulate. If you put a weighbridge 100 kilometres away from the point of entry, how do you protect the road? Secondly, weighbridges have been nothing but collection centres for corrupt officials. I have yet to see, on any day, a truck off-loading goods because it is over-loaded at any weighbridge. The trucks get to the weighbridges, talk to the officers, money changes hands, and road destruction goes on. One other thing that we need to address in the policy on roads is the quality of roads. If a recently constructed road sinks when trucks pass on it, it means that the standards were compromised. It means that inadequate combustion was done and inadequate materials were used. This is a major indictment to the officials of the Ministry. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, again, this Paper talks about standardisation of roads construction and maintenance, which is very critical. One need not talk about the benefits of good roads. If you collect fish from Lake Victoria, ordinarily with good roads, it will take you four and a half hours to get that fish to the Nairobi market. Today, it takes you 12 hours. That is a loss to the economy. If you move green vegetables from a place as close as Kinangop; because of inadequate roads, by the time they get to the market in Nairobi, they will have withered. This is a loss to the economy. Because of bad roads, criminal cartels that run public transport charge wananchi what they want. If the roads were good, it would cost less than Kshs400 to travel from here to Kisii or to Bungoma. Now we are paying double that amount. When buses slow down due to bad roads, there are other hazards on the road. There are criminal gangs waiting, who rob the passengers. So, you can look at the losses and the negative benefits that we are getting from bad roads. It is absolutely critical that we not only need a policy Paper on roads, but also a marshal plan to build new roads to spur economic growth. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, something that the Sessional Paper has not addressed is the relationship between a good road network spurring growth and security. These are issues that also need to be addressed. Why do we have banditry and stagnated economic growth in northern Kenya? This is because we have no roads. I have never agreed with officers of the Ministry of Roads and Public Works on the issue of going to sit at a market on a rugged road that nobody can use, ostensibly to count cars and see whether it is necessary to tarmac that road or not. There is no sensible motorist who will put his car on a bad road. You have to make the roads, so that you attract vehicles to use them. Before we pass the Sessional Paper, I would like to ask the Minister to see whether he can also address the issue of correlation between a good road network or its absence, economic growth and security, especially in isolated parts of this country. I am sure that if we had good roads in northern Kenya, namely, Moyale, Marsabit, Isiolo and Turkana, some of the issues that have bogged us down on security may not have happened. Some of the acts of banditry that we read about may not happen again. Even a bandit will think twice to stand with his wares on a highway to rob anybody, but where there is no highway, it is downhill. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, something very critical about roads that requires to be dealt with and which is being dealt with all over the world today, is private-sector participation in road construction and maintenance. If you speak to any motorist in this country, you will find that they 3070 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES October 19, 2006 are ready to pay any price to drive on a good road. They are willing to spend their money just to have comfort on a good road. You should go to Europe, America and Chile and see what is happening there. In fact, I would recommend the Minister for Roads and Public Works to take time and visit Chile. This is a country that suffered so much under the dictatorship of Pinochet. A road construction revolution is going on in Chile through the private sector. We need to bring in the private sector to construct, maintain and run roads on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis. In fact, we do not need to go to the World Bank with all their onerous conditions and many other things that come with their support.We can attract a lot of money and build good roads. Sometimes when we drive on our roads, we wonder whether we are confined and consigned to maintain and sustain the motor industry in Asia. Every time I drive to Bungoma and back, I have to buy new shock absorbers and suspension for my vehicle. Sometimes I have to buy a new engine for my car after a year. To sustain the motor industry and jobs in Asia is something that is avoidable if we have the right policies in place. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have passed many Policy Papers in this House. The problem is normally the implementation. That is why I suggested that beyond this policy, we need a legal framework that will be able to guide the Minister, the Ministry and the Government to bring legislation that will deal with road maintenance and construction in the country. You have just heard the issue on road reserves this afternoon. We also need a policy on this issue. Where infrastructure finds development, should it go through the development or around it? I think these are policy issues which we can address! There are certain circumstances where development precedes infrastructure and there are other cases where infrastructure precedes development. I think we need a policy where we can marry both. We need a policy where, sometimes, especially if you are doing a road that is not meant for speed. What the Germans call the autobahns . In Germany, they say that they have the freedom of speed and they do not care about the freedom of speech. Where there are no autobahns for speed, I think we need to embrace the policy of curving away the road from developments to avoid unnecessary damage and pain to people. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to mention the issue of urban roads and national roads. I have said on this Floor before that, a policy must be in place to harmonize the construction, maintenance and rehabilitation of roads between the Government of Kenya (GoK) and local authorities. You have seen in some urban centres where municipalities maintain roads and jump certain sections and tell you: \"This belongs to the GoK\". We are in the same country! We should have a situation where there is harmony between the maintenance and running of roads between the local authorities and the GoK, because the money comes from the same source anyway! If we pass this policy and live by it, this country will lift to a level of development that we have seen in countries around us. Sometimes it is shameful to see that jurisdictions with economies much smaller than ours, for example, if you go to Cameroon, Ghana and even our neighbours Uganda and Tanzania, their road network is a lot better than ours. I believe that this is a turning point. I believe that this Parliament will support fully the needs of our country to maintain our roads. I remember the former Minister for Roads and Public Works saying here that we need Kshs120 billion to bring our roads up to the required standards. If we denied ourselves a few things and sacrifice, the returns will be a lot better in the years that will follow. I laud the Minister for bringing the Policy Paper. I want to urge him to address the issue of road security and development in the disadvantaged parts of this country. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}