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{
    "id": 364209,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/364209/?format=api",
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    "content": "parts of the Constitution which then makes all Kenyans equal regardless of whatever part of the country they come from. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there are parts of this country; the northern parts of Kenya and also parts of Nyanza and Western, that would give rise to jobs and open up the regions for tourism. I am not a civil engineer but my civil engineer friends tell me that roads basically create civilization and if at all you want to help Kenyans move to the next level, then you must give it at least very small pieces of roads every year. With a Motion like this, we must definitely then be moving Kenya towards the right paths of development. Many parts of Nyanza, where I come from and particularly Ndhiwa Constituency, are fairly agriculturally rich but I have been grappling with about ten kilometers between two major roads in my constituency. I have been promised that these would be done for the past four to five years, but nothing has come of them. Farmers continue to lose produce on the Opapo-Mirogi Road. There is also the Pap-Oluanda-Awiti Road which we were actually promised by the President would be done, but because these were things that were verbally said and they were not policy ingrained, it was not possible then to activate them. A Motion like this enacted into law then sufficiently makes those particular promises actionable and I think in the next couple of years we must be looking at various parts of the country that are sufficiently very motor able. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if we open up the roads in terms of putting bitumen on the various surfaces, then you can be sure that the economy is going to grow sufficiently and we will be having a lot more money to do many other things and to pay for all other expenses. One of the things that we need to pay very close attention to is that - I am told there is a thought to harmonise or merge the various road authorities that have been managing the various road networks in Kenya. I think so far they have worked very well unless there is a particular reason. The Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA), the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) and the Kenya National Highways Authority (KENHA) should be left on their own so that they do the work that they do in the manner that they have been doing because, at least, it has worked. I think wisdom has it that if something is working, do not try to reinvent the wheel. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, merging all these under one authority then would create several bottlenecks. It will lead to corruption and it will be difficult to do our roads. So, I think as a country whereas this Motion needs to be supported, I am actually urging hon. Members to support it but we need to move to the next level which is enact the specifications into law and then we move towards allocating the monies and making sure that Kenya is sufficiently motorable. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there has been a lot of wastage in the past Government. If you notice, an arm like the Judiciary has interest in flying airplanes and building a house for the Chief Justice at Kshs600 million. Honestly, a country cannot afford these sorts of things. The Deputy President’s house has been built for crazy millions of shillings and actually the former Vice-President and the Deputy President were even split on whether to live in it or to live in the other houses. This is money the country can actually afford to put into doing roads which would then give us more money to do other things like health and social welfare issues."
}