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{
    "id": 241914,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/241914/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 224,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "(Mr. Wetangula); Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I do not know what the Minister for Housing intends to say regarding this Motion but it is intended to create policies which already exist. If you recall, last year, we passed a very comprehensive Sessional Paper which had all the good things that my colleague, Mr. J.M. Mutiso, is asking for. If you look at the National Housing Corporation and the Act establishing it, you will see that it was meant for the same purpose this Motion is intended. So, I do not know whether this is the right avenue to solve our housing problems. Housing is definitely an issue which needs to be addressed. It is, as other hon. Members have said, a fundamental human right to have shelter. In this country, you only need to open a newspaper and see how many houses are auctioned everyday by mortgage undertakers. This is because we have not been able to control the rogue lenders in terms of interests and to what extent they should charge. If you borrowed a mortgage today, you would pay, but apart from you, your children and grandchildren would have to pay it because half the time you pay, you only cater for interest and the principal figure remains intact. It is important that as a country, we avail opportunities for housing. In most countries where welfare is taken seriously, you tax the rich to assist the poor. It is important that the National Housing Corporation, which falls under the Minister's docket, be re-energised to give interest-free loans to Kenyans to purchase low cost houses. When we talk about housing, we are not only talking about provision of housing in Nairobi alone. Even people in Mbita need houses. They need houses and access to interest-free loan facilities to buy houses. Houses, water and other sanitation facilities must be available to Kenyans. We have seen through the Higher Education Loans Board Scheme that it is possible to have a fund, lend it out and have a payback which is interest-free and succeed in it. I am sure that if the Ministry of Housing placed a request for an approval from this Parliament, a fund would be set up. I do not believe that we need to proliferate the country with too many institutions. That fund can be run by the National Housing Corporation and should have branches in every district so that persons who want to build affordable houses, even in rural areas, can access it. We are not talking about a lot of money. If you go to the countryside, with about Kshs150,000 to Kshs200,000, you can build a 2178 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 19, 2006 decent house with corrugated iron sheets on top and a bathroom built in it. The fund could be spread to the whole country to assist wananchi in accessing good housing. It is absolutely important that the Ministry of Housing implements the provisions of the Sessional Paper that we passed here, which provisions replicate exactly what this Motion seeks to do. With those few remarks, I wish to unconditionally support this Motion and say that even if we pass it, we should implement it using the already existing institutions and structures. I support."
}