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{
    "id": 240220,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/240220/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 226,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Angwenyi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 326,
        "legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
        "slug": "jimmy-angwenyi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would like to commend the Minister for Local Government for a job well done. I want to encourage him to put more effort to achieve greater heights of prosperity. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Local Government is a government in itself. That is why we call it the Ministry of Local Government. If I were the Minister, I would not be competing with the so-called \"ODM luminaries\" who have no government. I would instead be performing my work to the extent that they would be the ones who would be trying to catch up with me. The Minister for Local Government has a political network throughout the country. I do not know how many county, urban and city councils we have in this country. If he connects that network, he does not even have to worry about somebody competing with him in Bungoma! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to urge him to put in more effort and use the political network that has been provided to him as the Minister for Local Government, and he can reach up to the sky. The reason I am saying this is because local authorities serve our people at the grassroots. When somebody in the slums of Kisii Town is provided with proper housing, this is registered at the grassroots level. Even the President cannot reach there. If the Ministry of Local Government provides a proper water and sewerage system in Kibera, it registers to that person who cannot afford a pair of shoes at the grassroots, which is the lowest level of this country. As you know, 63 per cent of Kenyans live below the poverty line. They cannot afford a pair of shoes. So, those are people the Minister will occupy. In fact, he will possess them! Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to suggest that the Ministry of Local Government should reclaim its previous glory. I have seen them trying to do that in Nairobi, but I would like them to extend that to Kisii, Kakamega, Mombasa and Garissa towns. I happen to have 2502 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 1, 2006 worked in the Ministry of Local Government as a finance officer and we used to carry out impromptu or surprise inspections, and we had powers to put a clerk in jail. This is unlike today when even a nominated councillor can challenge a Minister who has nominated him in a court of law. I do not know what our courts are doing. I do not know whether they do not have business to do. How can you challenge the person who nominated you when he cancels that nomination? This has never happened anywhere else except in Kenya, where courts indulge themselves and entertain frivolous litigation at the expense of handling more urgent and important matters. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like the Minister for Local Government to make sure that local authorities provide the services that they have been mandated to provide in Cap.264 of the Laws of Kenya. They are supposed to provide portable water for our people and marketing facilities so that we do not have hawkers in our towns. The Minister should come here and say that he is allocating Kshs3 billion from the Kshs9 billion of LATF money to provide proper marketing stalls in Nairobi, and provided that he takes Kshs500 million to Kisii, I will support him! I am sure the Temporary Deputy Speaker will support him if he did the same to Kapenguria."
}