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{
    "id": 396674,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/396674/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 122,
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    "content": "when improved, improves the rest of the sectors. The classification we are talking about has already been done. We already have the national highways which are under the Kenya National Highways Authority according to the Roads Act of 2007 and the other roads like the rural roads which are supposed to be under the counties. We also have urban roads which are under the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA). We have a case where the system wants things to continue the same way they have been, not because it wants to deliver services but because that is where most money comes from. We know very well that people in the roads sector say that the money we lose every year to corruption is enough to construct another Thika Superhighway, Kshs30 billion. About 30 per cent of the money sent to this sector is lost through corruption. That is documented. People have been talking about it in forums. The best way to come out of this corruption is to devolve the sector. In Kenya, we have close to 200,000 kilometers of road. Out of these, less than 15,000 are part of the national highways. The rest of the roads are in the rural areas. For example, the ones that KeRRA is handling, Class C and other special purpose roads are 60,000 kilometres. The other 100,000 kilometres are unclassified tracks. That is where the county governments should concentrate so that they develop to a point where the rural roads can be used for transportation. That is why I support the fact that the national Government should do what Kenyans have decided, to have those roads actually managed by the county governments. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other part is funding. Since the year 2000, after realizing that we were not maintaining our roads, the Government came up with the Kenya Roads Board to manage the maintenance fund, which is the Fuel Levy Fund. This Fund is generated from fuel. For every litre of fuel you use, Kshs9 is collected and used for roads maintenance. As I have said, the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) covers about 15,000 kilometers, while the rest is about 170,000 kilometers. But the KeNHA still gets over 40 per cent of that money. The Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) gets about 30 per cent from this, which is about Kshs4 billion. But there is no formula for sharing out the bulk of the money; that is, the Kshs100 billion which the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure gets. If you check with any of the authorities’ Director-Generals, there is no formula. It is the Minister who decides. I think that is where the problem is. People are holding on to the rural roads because of the money which they have been using. This is money which did not have any formula and that could be the main issue. So, we need to have the management of the county roads moved to the county governments. We all need to be told how the Kshs100 billion, which the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure collects through the fuel levy, is actually shared out. This is because that is where the inequitable development comes from. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, studies have shown that the choice of which roads are tarmacked actually depends on who the President is, who the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure is and who the Chief Engineer for Roads is, and it is documented. We want to get out of that and that is why we need to have our share of the development money. We are not claiming only the fuel levy money, but also the development money. We would like the Cabinet Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure to come out very The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}