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"id": 239895,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/239895/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Biwott",
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"speaker": {
"id": 321,
"legal_name": "Nicholas Kiprono Kipyator Biwott",
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"content": "Looking at the distribution list as given, it is obvious that all the money we are getting is earned from Roads Maintenance Levy. I believe that with efficient management of local authorities, the Ministry should be able to raise more money through rents and rates collection. It should be able to increase its capacity to meet the services required. At the moment, I think the Minister is doing very well. He is also doing well in the management of the cities. We, however, have shortcomings in planning. The physical planning of our cities is not very good. The building and developments going on in the cities are being done outside the planned programme, which makes it very difficult to relate the actual development to the services required. If you look at the roads we have, you will find that they were built during the colonial time when vehicles were very few and the usage was light. Today, we have a huge transport system, yet we still rely on the same roads. The Minister should direct more resources towards that direction in order to improve on the drainage, sewerage system, supply of water and security needs. It is impossible to believe how we will be in ten years' time if we do not attend to the actual services required. It is impossible to rely on the services that were planned for a smaller city to service a bigger city, which we are now seeing. There is hardly no space left to expand this city yet, the water supply programme is not keeping abreast with the expansion. There is no space for the expansion of electric power network and even road network. The space we have is not enough. There is also the need to zone the city so that big investors, who require high-class areas, are given those opportunities. August 2, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2565 We should stop haphazard development where people build kiosks and night clubs in the middle of residential areas. That increases noise and nuisance. They also attract criminals. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is an urgent need to attend to the plight of poor people who earn their living by hawking. Hawkers invade a place to scrape a living and, at the end, they become a nuisance. They are then harassed and driven away mercilessly. That is wrong because those people are poor. They only have the little that they carry. The local authorities should plan accordingly, so that those people are stopped from creating slums. But once you tolerate them to that extent, they need to be attended to. They have to be shown where to go. They should be allowed to preserve the little that they have. They have children to cater for. The way we see them crying on television is not commensurate with the civilised status of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, transport is another areas where the Minister needs to put more effort. We should support him in this House, even if it means raising money in the long- term. We need a rapid improvement of our transport system. We need to create jobs, especially in the small and medium size enterprises. They need to employ as many people as possible, and reduce unemployment. That should be spread throughout the country, so that congestion in large towns is reduced. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have looked at the Roads Maintenance Levy and it is only nine townships that are benefitting from it. They share the Kshs335 million. I think that money need to be spread to benefit as many towns as possible. There may be need for the Minister to look for more resources to meet the services required. Little attention to those problems will never help us. As you finish with one problem, another one comes up. By the time you complete everything, the whole process requires attention. Therefore, we will never be able to solve the problems once and for all. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the management of local authorities is good at the moment, because we have high class human resource. We are not lacking in brain power. However, we lack discipline and decorum. What we see during elections does not reflect the status which we think we have reached. When you see chairs being thrown at each other at City Hall, and it is the highest local authority in this country, it shows that there is something wrong with the management. We should not forget that Kenya is seen through Nairobi. Whatever happens in Nairobi is beamed all over the world. If Nairobi is clean and attractive, that is good. I have seen the amount of effort the Minister has put in the land at Uhuru Park, where there was a quarrel between a Minister and the police. He did an extra job there to justify the effort that he put. It looks good! However, it would have been better if such plans and development would be done earlier, so that our own Ministers are not woken up in the middle of the night to go and rescue an operation at Uhuru Park. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to appeal to the Minister to attend to the very basic things that we need. He should create, in conjunction with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Finance, zones where small and medium enterprises can be developed. Those zones can then be allocated to hawkers. Hawkers are people who are dissatisfied with their bosses. They have capacity and experience. That is why they think they can try out on their own, without any capital. It is capital that is undermining their efforts. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}