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"id": 242571,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Waithaka",
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"id": 223,
"legal_name": "Mwangi Kirika Waithaka",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the Vote of the Ministry of Roads and Public Works. First of all, I would like to start by saying that I support this Vote. But I would like to say that although the Government has really come out to support major roads that we have been agitating about, it should watch out the construction of those roads. The cost of constructing those roads is a real problem. As was rightly said by Mr. Muturi, when you say that you are constructing a road--- Let me give an example. There was a time when they were constructing Road C68, Magumu-Njabini in Nyandarua, but they decided to go haywire and purported to have constructed a road called C67 - which is 20 kilometres - at a cost of Kshs398 million. It was just gravelling! Even when we talk about the cost of our road being very expensive, it cannot go to such levels. We are talking about gravelling a road which is 20 kilometres, at a cost of Kshs398 million! That is approximately Kshs20 million per kilometre!. That is a true fact! Even the Public Investments Committee (PIC) went there to see that road. They wanted to see a road that was gravelled at a cost of Kshs398 million. In the year 2003, we had spent about Kshs48 million on the same road for gravelling, because it had been abandoned. The following year, they were given a variation order. The reason for giving that variation order was to favour a well-connected contractor. He was given that work and paid Kshs398 million on a job that was not properly done. Even now, if you travel on that road, 2152 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 18, 2006 that is from Njabini - a place called Githioyo - to Naivasha, you will see what was done. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, today, if you travel on the road from Sagana to Karatina, which is an \"A\" Class road, it already has some potholes, and yet it has not been completed. Surely, if we do not take precautions on how we spend that money, it will not matter how much we collect in terms of revenue! That is a very worrying situation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other thing is that we must know the capacity of our roads. If you travel on the road from Limuru to Naivasha - I think it is Class \"A\" in some parts- -- At Limuru, there is a signboard written: All motor vehicles exceeding 10 tonnes should use the Mai Mahiu Road. But when I travel home at night, I see trucks weighing 40 tonnes using that road! If a road was constructed to accommodate vehicles which are less than 10 tonnes, and yet all sorts of trucks, even those weighing 40 tonnes, use it, how can we be able to maintain such a road? Some of those trucks peel off the tarmac. I experienced it last week at a place called Njabini, when a truck--- I do not know how it came to Njabini. That is because from Naivasha, it is not supposed to drive to Njabini. From Nairobi, it cannot travel to Kimende and then go to Njabini. But it was there! It was weighing about 40 tonnes! So, my appeal to the Ministry is: We should be able to implement and adhere to the rules we have made. If it is a regulation under the Traffic Act that motor vehicles weighing more than 10 tonnes should use a road, it should be followed and implemented. Our worry is that our people are not able to implement and adhere to the laws that they have made. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when it rains in those areas, like Prof. Maathai was saying, you see water flowing along our roads. I do not think there is any Government that can maintain such a road. In those days, people hired by the Ministry of Roads and Public Works always cleared the drainage after every rainy season. Where did those people go? They used their hands to clear the drainage. Nowadays, all the culverts in some of those roads have broken down and water just flows on our roads. We use a lot of money on repair because we have refused to support the Maintenance Unit, which is very important. We should construct the culverts and clear the drainage system. We should also liaise with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Office of the President because our people are also very interesting! Even the people we represent are to blame. They always say our roads are bad, and they are the ones who block the drainage! The only people who can solve that problem is the Ministry of Agriculture under the Agricultural Act. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, all that I am saying is that we are spending money unnecessarily. There are some areas which are very rainy, like Kinangop. After every three months, they receive rainfall. Even if you gravel that road and it rains, the road will not be passable. You are forced to gravel it immediately after the rains. So, we need to set aside a lot of money to maintain such roads, if we cannot put them to bitumen standards. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Road C67 is from Njabini to Gatura. It connects to Thika Road at Blue Post. The same road extends to Naivasha, connecting two provinces and about five districts. It is a very critical road. It can also extend to Mwingi. We are the main producers of vegetables and potatoes, and we sell them to Mwingi when it is dry. We transport our food, for example, from Kinangop to Njabini. From Njabini we go to Nairobi then to Thika. From Thika, we go to Mwingi. If we are serious about improving our economy, we need to be careful about how we are inter-connecting those roads. It is not just a matter of constructing a road that does not connect to any economically viable place; for example, this road we intend to improve from Ndundori to Njabini. If it would have been extended to Gatura, it would join this other road which is in the Ministry's programme. A vehicle travelling from Ndundori to Ol Kalou, Kinangop and Gatura, which is about 34 kilometres, would then join the road to Thika and proceed to Mwingi and other July 18, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2153 parts of Eastern Province. I have noted with concern that we have some people in the Ministry who do not even know where some of these districts are. When we meet them in the committees, they do not even know where Nyandarua District is. Again, Road D59 from Njabini to Ndunyu Njeru and Miharati, we had really recommended in our District Development Committee (DDC) and other fora that we wanted it to extend to Road D88, to Ndaragwa, so that it can join the people of Nyandarua to their provincial headquarters in Nyeri. But instead of actually joining them, it takes them up to Ol Kalou. If you are in Kwa Wanjohi and you want to go to Nyeri, you have to go to Ol Kalou then to Nyahururu and then proceed to Nyeri, which is very far. Those who are in the Ministry, especially the technocrats, should know that it is very important when they are constructing these roads to connect them with areas of importance. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}