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{
    "id": 397041,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/397041/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 269,
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    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we need not blame the Government per se, but the people who have been entrusted with the maintenance of this infrastructure. Are they honest to themselves? Are the engineers in the Ministry of Roads honest people? What happens is that after a road has been completed, after two months, potholes start to develop on it. They start to have potholes which are dangerous holes on the roads. That is happening on our roads. I wonder whether the consultant engineers are usually on the roads to make sure that they are properly done. Do we have serious people managing our roads? If you visit Dubai and see how they construct their roads, a layer of tar is almost two feet from the surface whereas in Kenya, it is very thin. Within a month or so heavy trucks cannot be allowed to use those roads and yet they are meant to use those roads. The road is rendered useless. These are the type of roads we have in Kenya yet a lot of money is going towards construction. I know a lot of money goes to waste through cartels which are organized by the same engineers who are in charge of the roads. They are the ones who determine who gets the contract and which engineer’s company should be awarded the tender. They even determine who should be the consultant and the supervisor. They have formed their own companies to oversee the construction. These are the same companies which will do the construction and the money is shared after the completion of that construction. That is the agony of the onlookers, and these are the residents of each county; the 47 counties that are under question and which are covered by the Motion. So this Motion, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, is going to address the pathetic conditions of roads in Kenya. When you hear of accidents where people have died somewhere; or you hear that the road has been cut off by floods or the bridge has collapsed somewhere; or it is impossible even to take examination papers to a certain village in Wajir, or that examinations have leaked in north eastern, it is because of this kind of infrastructure. The development of roads in Kenya is pathetic and it is not because of lack of knowledge. It is because of proper, well orchestrated, careful allocation of this money only to be looted towards the end, hence poor road construction. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have areas which produce very important cash crops, and these are the same cash crops which earn us a lot of foreign exchange. Like we have heard from my friend, Sen. Obure, we have areas like Kisii, whose roads need to be tarmacked. That is the only way you can get coffee and tea transported from Kisii either to the market or to the factories. There is no way you can get tea processed in Kirinyaga if the roads are not all-weather roads. Otherwise, if we do not process tea, what else will we do with that crop? It will rot and then after that, there will be loss of revenue, which is translated as loss of foreign exchange and then poverty of the county will come in. So, what amount of money do we give out to those counties which are said to be marginalized? This is what we are saying; that we need a policy – and this Motion is geared towards that – of road development where we maintain or where we will ask questions on 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."
}