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{
    "id": 449253,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/449253/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 195,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Chanzu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 11,
        "legal_name": "Yusuf Kifuma Chanzu",
        "slug": "yusuf-chanzu"
    },
    "content": "The Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is one of the projects that we need in this country in order to spur growth. Our economy has grown. If you look at the Budget of this country of ten years ago and compare it with the current Budget, you will realize that our economy has grown by about six times. I remember that in 2003 we were talking about Kshs283 billion; today we are talking about Kshs1.8 trillion. The economy has grown, but we have not grown our sectors proportionally. We have not opened the country proportionately. Anybody trying to block the construction of the SGR is talking about what may have happened 20 years ago. We do not want to go that way. To say that Chinese are coming to this country to mess up this economy--- Who built the railway from Mombasa? It was built by Indians! It is not Kenyans who built it! We must have measures in place that will control this whole thing. We have cities in China which, 30 years ago, had a population of, say, 200,000 people. They were like Kakamega. Today, they have a population of 50 million people. It is not because of births alone, but also because of the Government creating a conducive environment, and so people moved there to invest. Today I saw the President inaugurate the new Communications Authority of Kenya – a change from the Communications Commission of Kenya. I think this is a milestone. Look at the amount of money that was contributed today as a result of savings from that organization, it was about Kshs4 billion. Safaricom paid about Kshs2.2 billion to the economy just for renewal of their licence. That is what we want in this country. So, we must open up the economy. We must open up all the sectors in this country. We cannot say that we must build roads--- If we build a railway, we will save our roads. The cost of repairs and maintenance of our roads constitute a huge budget. I beg to support."
}