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{
    "id": 239925,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/239925/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 162,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Kombo",
    "speaker_title": "The Minister for Local Government",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 218,
        "legal_name": "Musikari Nazi Kombo",
        "slug": "musikari-kombo"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me start by thanking hon. Members for their extremely high standards of debate that we have witnessed since yesterday. A lot of valuable advice and recommendations have been given to us by hon. Members. I want to say that we have heard those recommendations and we will definitely put them to good use, as we look at the future within the Ministry. I also want to thank hon. Members for the very kind words they have had for my staff in the Ministry, myself and, particulary, Nairobi Town Clerk and his staff. I want to say that the good work that is being done in Nairobi is because of less politics in Nairobi. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to take this opportunity to thank Members of Parliament and other politicians within the city. By de-politicising the affairs of Nairobi, they have enabled the Council to do what it is doing today. There have been difficult times. But when we experience them, hon. Members from Nairobi and myself have talked about them and found ways to move forward. As we improve Nairobi through the lighting of streets and so on, I want to assure hon. Members and, particularly, Mr. Oparanya who raised the issue of the estates that, we will be moving into the estates. At this stage, I would like to ask Members of Parliament within Nairobi to assist us in that area because vandalising of street lights is a major problem within the city. I hope that, as we move into the estates, we shall get political support from Members of Parliament. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, from Nairobi, we intend to move to Mombasa, Kisumu - the Millennium City - Nakuru and Eldoret. We shall move to Mombasa because next year, we are having a major event - the World Cross-Country Championship. That is an event that will put our country in the limelight. Therefore, as we are trying to showcase Nairobi for the Africities Conference, we want to showcase Mombasa for the cross-country. I want to ask politicians in Mombasa, Kisumu and Eldoret to give us support just the way politicians in Nairobi have done. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, some major issues have been raised. I will not talk about all of them. If you hear that I have not touched on an issue that you raised, do not take it that we have not heard you. Take it that we have taken note and we shall be using your advice next time round. The major issues that came up can be summarised into a few headings. Every Member of Parliament talked about the haphazard planning and construction that is taking place in various parts of our City. Even county councils in the rural areas--- We may call them rural areas today but, tomorrow, they will not be rural areas any more. Therefore, the concept of planning is something that we will take seriously not just as a Ministry, but as a country. We have to think about it seriously. As a Ministry, we have started to push that no town can develop without a master-plan. We have given guidelines and now the towns are busy working on their master plans, which in a very short while will become a conditionality to access funds from the centre. This is the approach we are taking. I know that we have taken a long time to reach this stage, but sooner than later, we will be seeing planned towns. Within the Nairobi City Council, we have now put a stop to the haphazard construction of buildings everywhere. We are looking at the rezoning of the City. Even in some areas that had been rezoned and allowed to put up different types of buildings; for example, Kileleshwa and Lavington, we now have a new approach to them. We will not allow the rezoning of 1997 to be carried on. So, we have new instructions that within that area, for example, on a quarter-of-an-acre, one can only put up so many town houses. These are some of the things that we are doing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we plan the Nairobi City, we have to bear in mind that it is surrounded by other local authorities. Now, we are looking at a metropolitan approach; August 2, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2579 that what happens in Kajiado Town does affect what happens in Nairobi City Council. Likewise, what happens in Kiambu similarly does affect what happens in the City. Therefore, we are in the process of having a metropolitan planning authority that will not just look at Nairobi, but also take care of all the surrounding towns. When this was raised in certain quarters, a number of colleagues came to me and said: \"You cannot do this because you are taking our towns to be part of the Nairobi City Council. For example, Machakos Town will be swallowed by Nairobi.\" This is not true. It is just a way of helping even Machakos to be able to plan now and for the future. So, if we tied around Nairobi, those towns also will develop very well. So, there should be no fear that they will be swallowed. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, apart from planning, I think there was a lot of talk about the transport system within the City. We have looked at the non-motorised mode of transport. We have tried to be friendly to pedestrians and other road users. That is why, within Nairobi City Council, wherever roads are being constructed, there is a pavement meant for pedestrians. But as we do this, discipline among Kenyan motorists is something that we should really appeal for. Those who have driven on Mombasa Road will allude to the fact that we have constructed a pedestrian walkway. But in the morning during the traffic jam, the matatus drive on that pedestrian walkway. I asked the engineers how we can stop this habit. Some suggested that we build bumps, but I think, at the end of the day, it boils down to the fact that there is lack of discipline among Kenyans themselves. So, if we cannot accept that, that lane is meant for pedestrians, I will be asking my colleagues within the police force to assist us to make sure that, that discipline is enforced. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, traffic management and congestion within the Nairobi City Council is an issue that was discussed at length. It is a problem, but the Ministry, working in conjunction with the Ministry of Roads and Public Works and the Ministry of Transport, is looking at it in a very holistic manner. We have plans to widen Uhuru Highway, and the contract has already been given out to a Chinese group. With the support of the Chinese, we will construct an extra lane on Uhuru Highway, so that the flow of traffic will be better. We are also working with the Ministry of Transport to push the idea of allowing only larger capacity matatus to operate within the City. Instead of the 14-seater matatus, we suggested to allow only the 28-seater ones. So, these are things that we are working at, together with other Ministries, to make sure that we decongest the City. We are also building what we call \"missing links\" within Nairobi. They will also help to decongest the City as we look for other ways to do so. The Ministry of Roads and Public Works is also working on the by-passes very seriously. The Vice-President talked about building a flyover on Uhuru Highway, so that we can drive on top of it. That also will soon be a reality because through concessioning, together with the Ministry of Roads and Public Works, we are now looking at a possibility of leaving the airport, all the way to Westlands, using the flyover. So, these are things that we are doing, not just as my Ministry, but in a holistic approach with other Ministries. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are also addressing the issue of solid waste throughout the country, especially polythene bags. I think it is a great menace throughout the country. I heard our Nobel Laureate yesterday raising this issue. There is a policy that we are working on that will soon be finalised. We will not just be looking at the solid waste as we understand it, but we shall also try and see how we can discourage the use of polythene bags in order to keep our landscape clean. That will help us to improve the environment as much as possible. We are also liaising with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources in this area. We have looked at what happened in Rwanda, where, practically, polythene is banned. I think we may be going that route as well. We should take note that polythene is dangerous to us and, therefore, we must do something about it. 2580 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 2, 2006 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we allow our catchment areas of Mt. Kenya, Aberdares, Mt. Elgon, Mau and Chereng'ani to be deforested, then we will have problems with rains. So, we are encouraging the county councils in those areas to make sure that they work together with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to ensure that the forests are not depleted. Again, that is an area that becomes very politicised. So, I would like to ask my colleagues that when we are doing something like that, we get their support because it is the lifeline of the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think every hon. Member who spoke showed some displeasure at what is happening with the LATF. We have increased the LATF amount and we are still open to suggestions by the hon. Members. We agreed yesterday with the Minister for Finance that we will re-look at the regulations governing the LATF within the next ten days. So, if hon. Members have ideas to give to us that will improve the management of the LAFT, we would appreciate it. But 50 per cent of the LATF money that goes to development must be used for infrastructure. I reckon something like that will help us to improve our towns. On the issue of hawkers, that is an issue which was raised a lot by hon. Members. As a Ministry and as a Government, we appreciate the role of small business groups, and hawkers fall in this category. Yes, we are looking at ways of helping them. If you have noticed, we are building markets around the country. I appreciate that the hon. Members for Kacheliba and Samburu would rather we build slaughterhouses than markets for them. So, we have taken note of that. But we are also building those markets in the other areas to be able to help small business groups. This problem is not only in Nairobi, so we are trying to build markets outside there too. But within Nairobi, we have ten sites where we want to build markets that will cater for those hawkers as well. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, politicizing the issue of hawkers is also not good for our City. If they co-operate with the Government, there is no way we will discard them. We will work with them closely. So, we would like to ask them not to politicize the issue."
}