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{
    "id": 291233,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/291233/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 271,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
    "speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 195,
        "legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
        "slug": "raila-odinga"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, the hon. Member spoke as if he was an engineer, because he is telling us that there are countries which are also affected by floods and their bridges are not washed away and so on. I would want him to give an example. It really depends on the nature and type of flooding that you are talking about. For example, the other day, we saw in Pakistan a town turn into a complete lake. Even if you have the best drains, you cannot deal with that amount of water, because you cannot have planned for it. When we are constructing roads, we design drainage. That drainage takes into account assumptions that in the event of a rainfall, we are expecting so much volume of water to come. That is what determines the diameter of the drainage to use or the culverts. The kind of flooding we are experiencing today is not something we would have planned for 20 years ago because at that time we did not have the effects of climate change which have come into effect as a result of the change of climate globally and also as a result of bad land use. I do not see how the hon. Member is ignoring this. Yes, there are cowboy contractors. Once upon a time, in my earlier incarnation, I was the Minister for Roads. I am the one who classified them as cowboy contracts and we deregistered them. We have created sanity in the construction industry. So, we now have contractors who are responsible. We have specifications which are used by our engineers in designing roads. There is enforcement which is the Ministry of Roads, and the Minister for Roads here will bear me witness, which ensures that those standards are followed. So, the hon. Member is talking about another era that we have passed. We are now in a completely different era and we want to ensure that our people get value for money when roads are being constructed."
}