Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 357600,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/357600/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 213,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "claim to have enough technical people to deal with the burden of the work that we have. Look at Kiambu, there is encroachment from Nairobi. There is development coming from the Ruaka side and the dual carriageway towards Limuru. This development is not planned. My view is that these counties require master plans. We know of areas where industries are now inside residential areas. We need a lot of support for the county governments so that we can progress in a logical manner. The other thing is that we are allocating quite a bit of funds. If I may just point out, we have seen recently the construction of the super highway, the airport and you can quote many other roads that are being done in this country. Hon. Deputy Speaker, the companies that are doing these works are foreign companies, and they are the ones to take the big share of what we are allocating. I have heard hon. Members in this House say that we will give the young people 30 per cent of the allocation. I do not know which young person can do a governor’s house. I do not know which young person is ready to go and do a water pipe or a road, for that matter. I think what we need to do, as a nation, is to be serious. The companies that are doing this work, particularly the Chinese ones, are state-owned companies; our Government is giving another Government an opportunity to come and do business in this country. I think it is high time this Government, or the county governments themselves, considered getting involved in the business of constructing roads, dams, et cetera, so that some of the money can remain in this country. How else can we develop our local capacity? We have universities and I believe that the level of research and development funds allocated to our universities is not even adequate. I support the President’s vision when he said that we need to undertake industrialization in this country. I think to undertake industrialization we should come up with very serious decisions to enable us to move to another level. I believe various county governments can even start polytechnics - we have said these will be established in each county. But we do not need to duplicate them; if one county creates one college another county should create a similar college. We should have some advice that in Nyanza, for example, they do something to do with marine or rice growing. When you come to Nairobi, they will point out what they need to do, so that, as a nation, we can all move forward. My concern, and this is really deep in my heart is that, if we really want to save our youth and reduce unemployment, we should not talk about allocations. We should go further and say this money is going down there. But if we are going to tell Governors and other State officers that they must sit on Italian chairs and, perhaps, the staff come from outside, we know for sure that this country will remain poor. This can best be done by devolved governments. Hon. Deputy Speaker, there is the issue of poverty reduction which is a big concern; if we do not address it now, we will not have another opportunity in the near future, because the gap between the haves and the have-nots is always getting wider and wider. This comes with the increasing vices like insecurity, crime and so on. Hon. Deputy Speaker, the time for us to address these issues and to be mindful of our brothers in the grassroots is now. We cannot be talking about improving services in urban areas, forget about rural Kenya and continue with the disconnect that seems to exist between development agencies and communities. Kenyans live in communities and they"
}