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{
    "id": 419438,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/419438/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 132,
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    "content": "modernize a port and after six months, the chairman is sacked and a new chairman comes in. He visits Singapore to also see how to modernize the port. After a short while, a new Managing Director comes in and they have to visit Hong Kong to see how to modernize a port to the extent that we are now looking bad. I met an Israeli Director of an institution of agriculture and he asked me what was wrong with our country; that people are always visiting Hong Kong to learn. He told me that when Kenyan delegations started visiting that institute, he was an intern. He has now risen to be the Managing Director of the institution and Kenyans are still coming to learn about the same thing. This is the problem; we want to be mired in the trap of seminars, visitations and so on, whereas we are nil at implementation. I want to urge the Committee – because they have said they are looking for an opportunity to legislate; to inform, get proposals and enrich the nature of policy and legislations touching on the sector that could be debated on the Floor of the House – please let us not end up with debating this Report and leaving it there. They should bring some legislation to enhance the efficiency of our port. As they are haggling on who has eaten what on the standard gauge railway line, you should bring legislation to help the country build an actual standard gauge electric line to modernize our transport system. You heard what Sen. (Prof.) Anyang’-Nyong’o said that we have big trucks on our roads. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am sure you use the road to Nakuru when you are going to Kuria. From Nairobi to Nakuru, there is an endless jam. There are trucks upon trucks. You heard Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale talk about Malaba. On some average days, you will find trucks lining up from Malaba border up to halfway between Malaba and Bungoma, a distance of 28 kilometres. All this is money lost because when the truck is parked there, it will take three to four days for a truck to move from Bungoma to Malaba to clear and cross the border yet we have been offered money by the Europeans to build a one border point where if you have goods coming from Kenya, once you are cleared on the Kenyan side, you are not checked on the Ugandan side and vice versa . If you go to Zambia; the boundary between it and Congo, at a place called Chirundu, which is now referred to as the most efficient inland border post, they effected the one stop shop and trucks cannot stop at Chirundu for more than one hour. You get there, you present your papers, they are dealt with and you move and yet Malaba which has been statistically proven to be the busiest border point in Africa carrying goods from Mombasa to about six countries on the west, there is no intention of expanding and making it efficient. Even now there is a road being constructed from Eldoret to Malaba, including the construction of a dual carriage bridge to cross the border. This has stalled because there is no money and yet this is very little money that will generate so much money for this country. I want to urge the Committee to visit the border points of Malaba, Namanga and Busia to see how we are choking business in this country by being inefficient in handling our international border crossings that are so necessary for us to grow our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the Port of Mombasa has been debated for a long time in extending its services to a free port. That is how Dubai has grown. With a free transshipment port, anybody with goods in Japan, Hong Kong or India can bring them into Mombasa without paying anything. You only wait for those who will buy, and that is 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."
}