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{
"id": 242212,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/242212/?format=api",
"text_counter": 236,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Angwenyi",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 326,
"legal_name": "Jimmy Nuru Ondieki Angwenyi",
"slug": "jimmy-angwenyi"
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I said, the infrastructure, especially the roads is what maintains an effective and positive economy. Year in, year out, we have seen certain areas which do not receive any money for repair and construction of roads. Some of these issues have been addressed in this year's Budget. I hope most of them will be cleared next year. I would like to thank the Minister for allocating funds for a very important road, the Mai Mahiu-Nakuru Road. This road is impassable at present. I hope the amount which has been set aside for that road will be used immediately we pass this Vote. That road serves the Maasai Mara National Game Reserve and the south-western part of this country. That road serves the people of Rachuonyo, Homa Bay, Migori, Kuria, Kisii Central, Gucha, Kericho, Bomet and Trans Mara districts. The amount of money which has been allocated for the road from Mai Mahiu to Lanet should be utilised quite quickly. If you were to drive on that road, by the time you get to Nairobi, if you are coming from Nakuru, your vehicle will be in tatters. Year in, year out, an amount is allocated to this road, but nothing happens. At the end of the year, the road is in the same state it was at the beginning of the year; probably worse. I could give an example of Kisii-Miruka Road in my constituency. In the Budget for the Financial Year 2003/2004, this road was allocated Kshs50 million and nothing was done on that road. The following year, with the wisdom of the Ministry, they reduced that amount to Kshs20 million, but nothing was done. This year, I am glad to note that it has been allocated Kshs100 million. I hope this is a true allocation of funds for this road, and that the road will be done this year. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have seen, with a lot of happiness, that the road from Isiolo to Moyale where my late friend, Galgallo came from. I wish he was alive today, will be done. However, let us not have an amount allocated in the Printed Estimates, but without the actual intention to do the road. The Ministry should take charge of these roads. As my colleagues have said, many times the engineers and the bureaucrats have messed up the road network. The money is allocated, but they siphon it. They use it for their own purposes. They give contracts to their own companies. It is time the engineers were asked whether they want to do their private business or they want to work for the Government. If they are conducting private business, they should be asked to resign, so that they can concentrate on that provision. We will not make progress if we do not manage the utilisation of funds allocated through the Budget for our road network. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have seen that there is a road I have been asking Questions about for the last two or three years. This is the Narok-Mai Mahiu-Nakuru Road. This road is very critical. It traverses through a very potential area which is likely to become the granary of this country. I hope the Minister will consider it next time and allocate it enough funds. 2226 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 19, 2006 Another road I would like to talk about is the Chebilat-Ikonge-Chebera Road. The President promised the people of that area that, that road would be done. However, I do not see any amount of money allocated for that road. That road also traverses through a very potential area. If it could be connected to Litein, then it would serve two very potential districts. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I note that in the provincial allocations, Nyanza Province, which contributes a lot to this economy, has only been allocated Kshs500 million whereas some provinces are receiving Kshs4 billion to Kshs6 billion. I have heard hon. Members from those provinces complain. I wish the Minister would take away money from those provinces, which have received Kshs4 billion to Kshs6 billion and allocate that money to Nyanza Province. We are willing to have the amount of money that was surrendered by Mr. Musila. I would like to have it. We can, at least do a road delivering our tea to a tea factory so that we can earn money to pay taxes. We need to establish a roads and transport authority that utilises the money. Once the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) has received the money, that authority will implement the utilisation of those funds. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beseech the Minister to change the policy of maintaining roads in high rainfall areas like Nandi, Kisii, Kakamega, Kericho, Nyeri, Nyandarua, Uasin Gishu, Mt. Elgon, Bungoma and Meru. In those areas, even if you do gravelling in a month, within two or three months, that gravel is washed away. So we should change the policy and adapt what has been adapted in South Africa where you do proper gravelling but you apply a single or double seal over that gravel. This will ensure that the roads can withstand the pounding of heavy rainfall. If that were to be done, we would save a lot of money. We might spend a little more but I understand that will cost between Kshs3 million and Kshs5 million per kilometre instead of spending Kshs2 million just to gravel and yet it will be washed away within a month or two and make the roads impassable. The Minister should adapt that new policy and replicate it in this country because it has been tested, tried and found to be correct in South Africa and other areas. This will enable us to have good roads like to have the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) roads we had in the 1960s and 1970s. That will save this country a lot of resources. It will also make our roadways motorable all the year round. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other aspect I would like to talk about is concessioning of the roads network. This has been tried in a country like Germany. Our Departmental Committee on Energy, Communications and Public Works visited Germany two months ago. We also visited the United Kingdom two months ago and we saw roads that had been constructed on the basis of concessioning. Since we have already adapted concession policy for our railways, I wish the Minister would consider concessioning a lot of roads, especially the main highways; the ones which consume billions of shillings, year in, year out. He should consider concessioning them so that we can have them done by private developers who will recoup their investments over a period of time. Thereafter, they will hand over the roads to the Ministry. The last aspect I would like to talk about is procurement. It takes, on the average I understand, 23 months to complete a procurement transaction on road construction. Recently, we enacted the Public Procurement Act here in Kenya. The Ministry should implement that Act so that we can reduce the period of procurement from 23 months to six months. That is the only way our implementation rate in construction and maintenance of roads can be attained. A higher level of implementation will be attained and we can have our roads well prepared. Finally, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when the Ministry gives out contracts, the contractors should be required to construct a road that lasts, at least, five years before the cracks emerge. Currently, there was a road which was being constructed in Eastern Province and our Committee visited that road. It had been done about four months earlier. When we visited it, we found that it was chipping off at the shoulders after only four months. That contractor had been July 19, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2227 paid close to a billion shillings. The Ministry must demand and have it in the contract agreement that the road must last between five and ten years. In Australia, a road contractor must construct a road that lasts, at least, 15 years before it is attended to for maintenance. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}