HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 241931,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/241931/?format=api",
"text_counter": 241,
"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, for giving me a chance to contribute to this very important Motion. First, I want to commend the Mover, hon. J.M. Mutiso, for bringing it. It now looks like this Parliament is trying to engage itself with matters that affect the poor. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, shelter is a necessity in life. Therefore, we must engage ourselves in providing proper and adequate housing for our people. All of us in this House should support the spirit of this Motion, if we are concerned about our people. Recently, the Government announced a policy of providing thousands of houses for our people, but they did not address the poor stratum of our society. If you go round the urban centres of this country, you will see shanties where people live in squalid conditions. One of these days, I would like this House to hold one of its sittings in Kibera and see whether we can do it. In Kibera, you will find a family of eight people living in a single room with double-decker beds. That goes against African norms, where parents stay away from mature children. A normal person cannot eat in Kibera. I even wonder how those people live, yet they voted for this Government. Therefore, we must set up this fund and target specifically the low income earners. We could get money from the NSSF; money which is lying idle there and being misused by crooks. As you know, the construction of the NSSF building was supposed to cost Kshs1.2 billion, but it has now cost Kshs5 billion. The same applies to the NHIF Building, which was supposed to cost Kshs432 million, but it has escalated to Kshs6 billion. The funds in those two institutions are there readily available, but they cannot be accessed by the rightful owners, so it is available for crooks to misappropriate. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if this Parliament put down its foot and said we must address the issues affecting our poor people, both in rural and urban areas, we would greatly assist our people. I am glad the Minister for Housing is a person who is humane; somebody who thinks about the poor people. He probably comes from a poor background and, therefore, if we pass this Motion, he will take it up and implement it. I know we have passed many Motions and Bills in this House, but they have never been implemented. But I am sure this Minister is a man who will implement what we shall pass. Currently, even the middle income earners cannot access mortgage facilities. Even Members of Parliament cannot afford it. The Parliamentary Service Commission had to devises a special mortgage facility for Members of Parliament to access housing. That is why the current Members have been able to buy houses in Nairobi unlike the previous Members. I served in the last two Parliaments, but I could not access a mortgage facility, not even a one-bedroom property. Therefore, let us pass this Motion and urge the Government to implement it so that our July 19, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2183 poor people can benefit. With those remarks, I beg to support."
}