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{
    "id": 396676,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/396676/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 124,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "clearly and tell us how the Kshs100 billion for transport sector is being shared out. That is where we have been losing out. I am talking from experience because up to recently, I was a regional manager with KeRRA and we used to get only Kshs30 million per constituency. That is why Sen. (Dr.) Kuti, maybe, could not get the money to do his bridge. This is because even if you put what Isiolo gets, it will not construct that bridge. That money was supposed to have come from the development fund, which has no formula. The only formula to get it is that you have to go and queue at the Cabinet Secretary’s or Principal Secretary’s office. I think that we need to get out of that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I believe that this should have been among the first sectors to be devolved. This is because if it is the issue of capacity, right now KeRRA only has engineers. The management of the fund is done using committees, whose members are actually from the Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) committee. The engineer is only a secretary. Even the tendering is actually done by the same committee, composed of the CDF members, a procurement officer and the engineer. So, there is no capacity issue there. The Mechanical Transport Equipment Fund is actually autonomous and can be accessed by anybody. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other one is the contractors. What the KeRRA staff do is just to supervise the contracts which are done by the local contractor. So, KeRRA will still be there because of the standardization and specifications part. This is because we need to have roads which are standard throughout the country. The Ministry still has that obligation, even according to the Constitution. It is supposed to be in charge of maintaining the standards of the roads. That can be one, but I still feel that the actual control of the funding should be done by the county governments. We have seen that the county governments are taking this aspect of roads seriously. For example, in my county, the sector which was allocated more money than the others in the Budget this year was roads. So, I am wondering what happens to that money now. Does it mean that we have to redistribute it to other sectors which were not our priority? It is already interfering with even the way the county governments are thinking. They have already prioritized this sector, but if now it is moved to KeRRA, then that means that we will not get the development that we required. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the national Government should follow the Constitution and devolve the county roads as they devolve other functions to the county governments. This is because other sectors like health which already have staff are fully devolved. The good thing with the roads sector is that the KeRRA already has staff, even up to the constituency level. So, it is just a matter of the staff working under the county executive and the chief officer of the transport department of each county. We are not introducing anything else, just like the officer in charge of health at the county is directly now transferring all his staff and facilities, so that they are under the county governments. The same thing should happen to the roads. The good thing is that the structure is there. So, KeRRA, maybe, has to remain with the technical aspect of ensuring that the standards and specifications are the same throughout the country, but the funding should be devolved to the county governments. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support. 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."
}