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{
    "id": 497459,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/497459/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 62,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Prof.) Nyikal",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me an opportunity to support this Motion and to congratulate hon. Mwinyi for bringing it up. This Motion addresses very important issues in the air travel, air trade and trade in general. This addresses the need to increase demand for air transport in this country. Those of us who travel locally by air know how big the demand is between Nairobi and Kisumu and between Nairobi and Mombasa. It reaches a point that most of us get stranded at the airport because there are not enough spaces and the prices are still high. Therefore, this demand must be met. The only way to do so is to liberalize air transport so that more players come in and increase the business. This country has moved on. We are now touted as a middle income country. We cannot have a high speed cyber space communication while on the ground, we cannot communicate as fast as we need to. We do not even take advantage when we have conventions and events where people would like to move across the country fast and participate. It is important that we move now and liberalize air transport as a whole and air fare in particular. This Motion also addresses the issue of competition. We need to encourage competition in the air travel industry. Without competition, services cannot be good. All of us have been complaining of the bad services that we have been receiving. That is expected when there is monopoly or large companies that are de facto monopolies. Because of that and the demands, the air fares go up instead of reducing because more people need the services but they are not there. It is interesting that between Nairobi and Kisumu, which is about a 30 minutes flight, you pay about $200. This is the same fare that I once paid to travel between Washington and San-Francisco, which is a five hours flight. You pay that for a 30 minutes flight. This is time to liberalize this market. The disrespect people talk about, personally, I will not complain about the Kenya Airways because I know that they work very well so long as things are normal and there is no problem. The moment there is a problem, a delay or there is a large crowd, you suddenly feel like somebody in a bus park. We need to liberalize this sector, so that we can get the competition that will ensure efficient and respectable service. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}