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{
    "id": 239898,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/239898/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 135,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Nderitu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 231,
        "legal_name": "Alfred Mwangi Nderitu",
        "slug": "alfred-nderitu"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance to contribute to issues concerning local authorities. Local authorities have actually let down the country at large. Something must be wrong in terms of management, administration and working out priorities. I appreciate the fact that the NARC Government has been in power for only three years now. At least, we should be able to see the effects of a new Government. I come from a place where all our local authorities and towns have been invaded by hawkers. When replying, the Minister should inform us what programme he has for all the hawkers in this country. With regard to garbage collection, most of our cities do not even have incinerators. You do not require a professor to tell you where to dump garbage. There are no drainage systems in our local authorities. Year in, year out, local authorities collect revenue from all the businesses in 2568 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 2, 2006 their localities. We need to work out a programme for developing our local authorities. We do not need to come here in Parliament to organise that programme. I want to believe that the Ministry of Local Government has highly trained employees. Something is wrong somewhere. The issue of councillors fighting is immaterial. What is important is delivery of service to our people. Our people require a drainage system and a clean shopping centre. We should also build malls for hawkers at a nominal fee. That is why hawkers fight in Nairobi; when you move them, they ask you where you want them to go. Instead of throwing them into an open ground, why can we not spend in every town or shopping centre about Kshs20 million and we build malls? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the environmental conservation programme in the City Centre is coming out very well. I urge the Ministry to extend it to all other local authorities. I know that the city is being cleaned because there are visitors coming around. But what if one of them decides to travel to Thika or Machakos? The cleaning should not be confined to Nairobi only but everywhere. This ought to be a continuous exercise. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, starting from 7.00 a.m. up to 8.00 p.m. there is traffic jam and you cannot move in Nairobi. The Ministry has the power to create a conducive environment for motorists. We have very educated men and women in that Ministry and we support them. Kenyans are losing a lot in terms of time and fuel. The manufacturers are also losing when their vehicles are held up because of traffic jam. This is something the Ministry can change. If the Minister were to do something in that direction, Parliament would support him. So, we are only waiting for the officers to act. Majority of local authorities have outlived their usefulness. Some of them cannot collect enough revenue to pay salaries of their officers. The Ministry should evaluate why such authorities should exist. It is pointless for business people to pay for their licences yet the local authorities cannot even buy graders or exhausters for the sewer system. If the local authorities cannot afford to offer these services, they should allow private entrepreneurs to operate exhausting systems on behalf of the Ministry. The first priority of each local authority would be to have all the necessary equipment to run. Certain local authorities do not even have computers or photocopying machines. I hope that in the next Budget, the Ministry will ask for more money to provide these services. Members have been speaking about increasing the CDF allocation, but I wish the allocations to this Ministry would rise by about 20 per cent. This is a core Ministry. Those hawkers out there are the ones who \"convert Members into ATM machines\". I would like, instead, the Ministry of Local Government to become the ATM machine because that way, they will have a livelihood. The Ministry should also look into the issue of town planning. You enter into a shopping centre and you take one route which ends into another building; a dead end. It is time most of these towns are re-planned. I know it is expensive, but can we have sanity in our shopping centres? Majority of our markets have no toilets or water, yet every day local authority officials collect revenue from business people. Where does that money go? These are questions I would like the Minister to respond to. We know he has a heavy task ahead of him, but he should know that Parliament will support him to clean our towns, and he should not shy away from asking for more funds. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}