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"id": 45529,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/45529/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Nuh",
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"speaker": {
"id": 114,
"legal_name": "Nuh Nassir Abdi",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to be very brief. I want to agree with the previous speakers, hon. Wetangula and Mr. Ethuro. They could not have said it better. You wonder whether it is a regulatory authority that is missing or it is just the Government that has gone to sleep and refused to do what it is supposed to do. With all the Authorities around, we still complain about our roads, that they have been done badly and the Government pays for the supervision through budgets towards these authorities. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I do not know whether adding an another authority to oversee issues of construction in general, including roads and buildings, would sort out the problem, or whether it is for us to ensure that we enforce whatever statutes and regulations that we have within our purview. I want to be very candid. The financial regulations specify that no single contractor can be allowed to handle more than four contracts at a go within Government circles. It is very clear. But is it the reality? Hon. Kiunjuri, a member of the Executive, was just affirming that contracts are doing up to a maximum or a minimum of eight contracts at a go and yet, the financial regulations are clear that regardless of the quantity of that contract whether it is Kshs1,000 or Kshs1 million, once a contractor has been allowed to do four contracts, the fifth one should never be allowed to pass. That opportunity should go to another contractor. This is for the purpose of efficiency. You will find contractors split between doing so many jobs just because of the hunger for money. They would want to do a road here, build five classrooms for a primary school somewhere, or construct staff houses in a different place. The same contractors could be involved in the construction of, say, Lamu Port and also engaged in the drilling of boreholes and so on. It is a mess! At the end of the day, contracts take longer than they were scheduled to. Once the contract period is extended, you will hear the same contractor claiming some more funds on the pretext that fuel prices have gone up. You will hear him state other contingency measures. This is because they collude with the engineers from the Ministry. You will hear them say that they want to include more scopes of work. You hear them say since budgets have gone up, even water shortage has set in. All these is their fault and not of the Government. So, my question still stands: Is it an authority we need or is it the enforcement of regulations which is lacking? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to go to the specifics in the Bill. I hope that the enactment of the Bill will bring changes and not serve to provide jobs for some people within the authority. Clause 2 of the Bill states that the Minister may by notice in a gazette amend the First Schedule. After we pass the First Schedule in this Bill, a Minister, perhaps, because he wants to exclude or include some of the institutions that are represented in the authority, is allowed to come up with a different schedule via a notice in a gazette. I think that is not correct. The schedules, once passed in this Bill, have to be the way they are. If a Minister wants to make any amends or changes, then we should not give him express authority to go and tamper with the people who are supposed to be constituted within that Authority. We will be giving the Minister so much leverage such that he will be operating at his own whims and even include associations or other entities within the authority or kick out the errant ones which he thinks do not comply with what he wants done. This is not because of the good side of the law, but because they will not be colluding to fleece the public of its money. I am a bit uncomfortable with some of the clauses in this Bill. One would think that some of them were inserted purposely, maybe, to give some people jobs or to deny others an opportunity to serve. When you talk about the nominees of these associations and then go ahead to give guidelines on who they are supposed to nominate, I think we are not giving the relevant authorities autonomy to make nominations of people they think will be able to serve in those capacities. So, to me, when you say that the people mentioned in the second part of the First Schedule have to have a Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, that looks a bit okay. For the purposes of communication, they should be able to communicate in English and Kiswahili languages. However, when we put experience of ten years, then we will be locking out young entrepreneurial Kenyans who have just joined the construction industry to come and serve in this authority. They may not have the competence of ten years experience, but they could have been serving in those associations which are supposed to nominate them, say, for three or four years. They could do a marvelous job within that Authority and try to infuse measures of reform and new energy. So, the issue of putting a period of ten years of experience will lock out the Kenyan youth, so that they are not nominated by these institutions. Instead, you would want some old guard with whom you will go to pubs to cut deals. If we want a serious authority, it is one that should allow the youth of this country to serve in it. Finally, we are trying to have scheduled meetings for this Authority. One of the clauses says that the Board shall meet at least four times in every financial year. The same clause states that not more than two months shall elapse between the date of the first meeting and the second meeting. With basic mathematics in mind, if you say that not two months should elapse between the first and second meeting, then in a financial year there will be at least six sittings. However, I am a bit concerned with setting a minimum limit of meetings. Some Kenyans are very funny. Some boards just meet to cash on allowances. We should set a maximum number of meetings that should take place in a financial year and not minimum. This is because if you set a minimum of four meetings, these people will be meeting every other week. This will drain the coffers because they will be entitled to allowances. It is, therefore, better for us to set a maximum number of meetings the board should have. It will be up to them to decide on the minimum number of meetings they want to hold, that is, whether they want to sit once a year or not. Setting a minimum of four sittings for them will amount to giving them a green light to sit every other day. You will, in fact, have them sit on all the 365 days of the year and that would drain their coffers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks I support the Bill. However, some seriousness should be put in not only enacting the laws, but ensuring that the same laws are enforced by the authorities concerned."
}