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"id": 45501,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/45501/?format=api",
"text_counter": 288,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
},
"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am coming to that. The hon. Member is impatient. This is an area in which I have a lot of information. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, look at the two phases of our development, the first regime and then the second regime; the first regime wanted to develop an indigenous bourgeois class. They want to indigenize the economy and, therefore, there was a passionate effort to try to empower our people to get involved in the private sector generally. There had been a lot of discrimination against the indigenous population in the colonial era. So when we came in, we started, first, with Africanization, and then there were complaints that it was racialist. It was then changed to Kenyanization. That was what helped to promote indigenous people in the commercial fields. Remember, there were certain businesses which were said could only be done by local people. Therefore, they were Africanized and there were facilities to give loans. A similar policy was applied in the field of construction. The National Construction Corporation (NCC) was trying to promote our people. A number of them came up. Look at the buildings up the hill like Kilimo House and Afya House, which were all built by indigenous companies. We had a company called SKIMS. These houses were built by indigenous construction companies at that time. If you go to the Civil Servants Estate in Kileleshwa and other estates, they were built by indigenous companies at that time. But then when did the rain begin to beat us? I said that was intent on creating indigenous bourgeois class. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, then came the second regime, which was hell bent on reversing what had been done before by creating what we called comprador class. Comprador is basically commission agent, who stands between ventures and capital making it possible for people to come and invest. That was the era of licensing. They would procure licences for this and that and then get commissions. This means we were not investing properly. We were basically investing in speculation and land. Then now that was how the indigenous entrepreneurship was killed. Corruption also expanded more in this era. This was the era of what I called cowboy contractors. This is a phenomenon that came up in the 1980s and 1990s. They became like a cartel. A few of them would collude to get contracts and exclude all others. This was how the indigenous companies were then killed. If you are not able to pay the commissions which these cowboy contractors could pay, they would collude and say, contractor No. A will be the lowest for the particular one. The rest would then bid higher than A. The second would be B and C and so on. Therefore, they were just circulating contracts amongst themselves. It became then much more lucrative in those days not to complete a project. A project would be awarded to a contractor and he would do a quarter of the project. He would then go and declare a dispute with the Government under the excuse that there was an under-design of the project and, therefore, they needed to increase the cost of the project. If there is a dispute, they would abandon the site, remove the equipment and leave only some decayed equipment on the site. Then they would begin to charge damages for idle equipment. All this would pile up and in the end, the Government would end up paying hefty fees for work that was not done. If there was a dispute and the contractor went to court, the Attorney-General â and he is here to confirm to you â would also go to court and say that the contractor was wrongly before the court. He would say that the case was wrongly before court because the contract provides for arbitration. The contractor in this case would have jumped the procedure and gone straight to court. So, we would request the court to refer the matter for arbitration. As usual, the court itself was part of that system and the magistrate would rule that the matter was rightly before court and give very hefty awards to the contractors. That is how the local contractors were killed. I agree that we must start afresh and that this Bill provides a perfect opportunity for us to start afresh by giving our people more opportunities by creating an institution that will help our people to develop capacity and also give the Minister an opportunity to regulate this sector. We have capacity in terms of manpower. We can also get funding. What is required more here is discipline in execution of projects by our local people. The financiers are not to be blamed. Let the truth be told. The emergence of Chinese contractors in this country has created some kind of discipline and competition in this sector. They are the ones who have driven the cowboy contractors out of business. They are able to bid at much lower reasonable prices and complete contracts. So, sanity has finally come back to this industry. Before the emergence of the Chinese in this industry, the Government was being held at ransom by cowboy contractors. They knew that they were the only ones available. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, here, I want our people, when given an opportunity, to show that they can perform. Let them not just wave their skin colour by saying that they are indigenous. They should know that this country wants to have value for money and every penny of the taxpayerâs money counts. Let them have the discipline while they are working with the Chinese to report early in order for them to be counted because at times, they come late. When they come in late, they are excluded from working on that particular day. We should instill discipline in our people. Countries that have made it like India and China, among others, have created skilled and cheap labour force. That is the secret to success. That discipline must start with the entrepreneur. The owner of the company, himself, must be disciplined. We know about our skilled contractors who still do not know how to do construction work. If you give them a contract, the day they are paid, they abandon the site. You are left with workers who have not been paid while the contractor has already been paid money and moved out and gone back home, probably to marry a second wife. By the time he comes back, he has already spent the money but the workers have not been paid. That is a fact; the way it is. We need to help our people change in terms of culture because we have a culture of being irresponsible in what we have been given. We also have our consultants. This field has contactors and consultants who are also part of the problem but will be part of the solution. Our consultants must also ensure that work is being done in accordance with the specifications that have been spelt out. Most of the time, there is a collision between contractors and consultants. The consultants are the ones who say that the contractor oversaw this and that and needs this and that. That is why a contractor is justified in asking for higher scales. That is how we end up with a project that has been over-estimated because there are no funds. The projects end up being abandoned in our country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want to say that this country will move forward through development of infrastructure. I had said earlier that is the solution to our problem. If you asked me, solution number one would be infrastructure, number two, infrastructure and number three, infrastructure. Infrastructure can only be developed by contractors, be it roads, housing, water or energy, among other things. These projects require heavy investments in terms of capital because most of them are very capital intensive. This money is scarce and comes from our taxpayers. It must be used prudently by those who are given the opportunity to spend it on behalf of our people, the Government officials and the contractors. I am looking forward to the day when our contractors will be almost 100 percent Kenyan like there are in Britain, China and so on. We are now laying the foundation for this to happen. Let us hope that in passing this Bill, sanity can be reintroduced in this sector and that our people can once again say that this is our country and we want to develop it. No one will develop Kenya but Kenyans themselves. Kenyans will not all the time be coming up with excuses such as we have been denied this and that. Let Kenyans come up as Kenyans and let patriotism prevail. Let all people be prepared to make sacrifices in the greater interest of our country. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}