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"id": 239902,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Awori",
"speaker_title": "The Vice-President and Minister for Home Affairs",
"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "Moody Arthur Awori",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I also wish to add my voice and contribute to this Vote. First, I would like to thank the Minister for the concise way in which he moved the Vote. I want also to thank him for the way he is running the Ministry of Local Government. This is a very important Ministry which touches on almost everybody. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir,looking at the Central Business District (CBD) of Nairobi currently, we are happy with the way things are going on. There are streetlights and people walking in the CBD can now see what is happening. We want to be positive in our contributions on this Ministry and let us not direct ourselves only on the negatives. Perhaps we can point out a few weaknesses here and there in order to help the Minister and his officers to run this Ministry. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, still talking about Nairobi and its beautification, the Nairobi City Councils needs to do a little more because some of us miss the bougainvillaea flowers that were very familiar about 30 to 40 years ago. When the jacaranda trees were flowering, they dropped beautiful flowers on the lawns all over the place. I remember in the old days when we used to go to the movies and on our way home, there used to be a big truck with water with people actually cleaning the streets. I think we are moving towards that direction. However, I would like this service to be extended beyond the CBD. Let us go where the majority of people live, that is the Eastlands. We want to start by removing the garbage. I have never understood why we still live with garbage in the Eastlands because the people who used to do this were the same people who are there today. What we need now is for the officers at City Hall to give proper leadership so that the staff whose job is cleaning up, do their work properly. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the Central Business District (CBD), there is one weakness and that is the issue of traffic. I would like to give a very simple example to illustrate this. I called the Attorney-General in his office more than 45 minutes ago because I wanted to have a word with him. As you can see, he has just walked in, 45 minutes later because of the heavy traffic. It is only now that he is arriving because of the heavy traffic. We want a proper traffic system. Many times, the Ministers and senior officials travel in other countries to see how they can learn from those areas how to do their job properly. I know that my brother, the Minister for Local Government, has been to Seoul and Japan. He knows that Japan is a tiny country, but there is a proper system. Let us go overhead now and take action. We have talked about having traffic going around. We can build stilts all the way and build several roads. So, this is one thing I want to plead with the Minister, that we should look at this issue very seriously. I say this because time is money. Many people are spending time, not discussing business, but in their motor cars; between their offices and the places where they would be discussing matters of development. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, about 85 per cent of our people live in the rural areas. We want to encourage them to stay there, because migration to major towns like Nairobi and Mombasa, creates welfare and social problems. In making the rural areas attractive, that is the small towns, town councils should create an environment that will also help investors to invest in those places. If we do so, we will stem the migration into the big megalopolis like Nairobi, Mombasa, Kisumu and other towns. So I am pleading that we should now strengthen town August 2, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2571 councils in the rural areas. Let us encourage people to come and live in those towns and let them leave the farms, so that those farms can be large units that will help to revive and build our economy. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we need a masterplan in those town councils. If you visit a beautiful place like Bungoma District, which is very vibrant economically, people are building houses in a very haphazard manner. In my little village of Funyula, right now, there are no streets of any kind. When people are living that way and maybe there is an expectant mother who is having complications at birth, it is difficult for even an ambulance to reach the homestead. It is necessary to take a deliberate policy to plan and put streets in the small towns. We must also be prepared even to destroy certain houses that have been built on the streets so that we create a good plan because this is a matter of life and death. Many times, we have seen in the slums of Nairobi, when there are fires, the fire engines cannot reach the affected places because there are no streets of any kind. Let us every time insist on town planners in those areas to plan properly and to have street lights. We should also have names in the streets so that we can recognise where people are. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we believe that the Ministry of Local Government can do quite a lot on the economic side by making towns attractive, creating the cottage industry and encouraging the Jua Kali sector in those places. This simply means that the Ministry must now harmonise its work with the ministries of Trade and Industry, and Finance, so that we attract investors to come to those places. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, in the small towns, we must think of the health facilities, especially public toilets. These are extremely important when we are building markets and bus parks. I believe that one of the first things that should be done even before a bus park is completed, is to build toilets. If we make those town councils attractive, this will create employment in those places and people will be proud of the areas where they are staying. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to touch very briefly on the issue of the rates. The rates, particularly in major towns like Nairobi, are being increased almost every other year. However, there are no services commensurate with the rates. We pay rates, so that we get essential services. Finally, we need discipline in all councils from the Nairobi City Council to the smallest council in this country so that the councillors are also waheshimiwa . This is important. Even if we cannot have the new constitution now, but we need some kind of amendment to allow the chairmen, chairwomen and mayors of councils to be elected directly. To me, it negates democracy when we allow 20 to 30 people to decide on a mayor of a town that has got millions of people. We need to ensure that it is the majority who elect a mayor. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}