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"content": "the vehicles come since Kenyans are busy buying vehicles. We need to come up with a way of decongesting the road. We should consider the innovation that that we had from Thika from Nairobi, where the Ministry did very well. But if you expand a 30-kilometre road and then narrow the road when it joins the City of Nairobi, what does it tell us? It tells us that we need to think beyond. Instead of doing just a few kilometres, we can plan for a highway that runs from Mombasa to Busia even if it takes us four or five years. Whenever you travel to Nakuru, like some of us normally do, there is no time that you will never get that road busy. It is permanently packed, even on a Sundays. The road is very smooth, but narrow. Since we inherited these roads in 1963 we have never expanded them. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Kenyans have never learned to invest more in order to get more. We are now going to invest in the Lamu Port, yet Mombasa is still not as efficient as it is required to be. We are opening up a bush there. I was the Permanent Secretary who was responsible for the construction. The buildings are now done, but three years down the line, nobody is using them. We have not been able to build the first berth for any ship to dock. I think that Kenyans are very good at producing documents and acting on impulse. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, somebody talked about us relaxing and allowing some obstruction. If somebody does not agree with an idea, he rushes to court and we say: Let us wait. There are decisions that touch the lives of Kenyans that may not please one or two persons. So, if we find that a decision is essential we need to move on---. That is why we are calling upon the Executive to move and implement decisions. If as many Kenyans as possible are pleased with the idea, we should work with it. If it is discovered that there are a few “pickpockets” in the project, they should be arrested in the process. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, some people are calling for the termination of the railway project that the President launched the other day, just because of a few clouds. If you think that there is somebody there who is a problem, he should be answerable. I have just come from my county where some children were asking: “Senator, you are in the Jubilee Government; where is my laptop?” They also listen to radio and television and know that the contract has been canceled by somebody who does not know the demand for them. What went wrong that we allowed things to go to that extent? We need to be firm. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we transport a lot of fuel by tankers and there are some notorious places that are known, like Salgaa, Sachang’wan and so on, where a week does not pass without a tanker being involved in an accident. We call them black spots, but have never taken any keen interest to make them better spots. In West Pokot, for example, there is a very notorious corner called Kamatira. Last week a tanker which was going to Sudan caused an accident. When we raised the issue with the relevant authority, they said that they will act. This Committee in conjunction with the relevant officers in those Ministries needs to identify all the areas where we normally have black spots and come up with a solution. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, again we have not taken advantage of some of the newly created states like South Sudan. Even with the problems that they have, they need food. Most of the food comes from Kenya but it has to go through Uganda, yet the road 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."
}