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{
    "id": 499264,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/499264/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 131,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kabando wa Kabando",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 31,
        "legal_name": "Kabando wa Kabando",
        "slug": "kabando-kabando"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this very nice piece of legislation. It is a good proposal. I would like to say that I was involved in the inaugural water sector reforms when the Water Act, 2002 was being implemented; I was privileged to serve as the Chairman of Nairobi Water Company in the period 2004 to 2007 and witnessed the challenges that existed. There was need to diversify water sector programmes in rural areas, particularly in areas that were coming up with new water bodies. Inclusive of those were water organisations within villages, water units that were organized by communities in order to enable them to minimize costs. With devolution in the new dispensation, there are still some grey areas that need to be tightened; I am very happy that in this legislation, they are being taken care of, particularly the need to ensure that investments by the national Government are not ruined by county governments after investment is undertaken. For instance, if there is a dam that is developed in a certain county through a grant, a loan or the normal financing by the national Government, does that investment become wholly a property of a county? I tend to be a little bit concerned with the proposal that although we say that counties must benefit, and the local people truly benefit from investment in their area, we must also be conscious of the fact that there are basic investments done by the national Government that should cut across counties and enable the nation to harvest benefits. A dam that is constructed at the edge of a county, at the very boundary, does not necessarily belong to that county and neither should any other investment, for instance a water reservoir. They belong to the nation and cut across. Therefore, I hope that we will come to the stage of amendments. There should be concessions arranged between the county governments and the national Government, so that the implementation of investments does not bring conflict. It is said many times that if there will be another war in the world, it will be over water. If there will be any cause of disagreements - it is even happening in this country - it will be because of water. In the arid and semi arid areas, communities are fighting over water, or they are disagreeing; therefore, we should contemplate a scenario where in future we will need to have a mechanism in place that will be so tight that in the long term we will not have the county governments re-investing in autonomy. This will be by them saying: “This belongs to us; it is within our county; it is a dam. It is a water spring.” It is just like the way we talk about forests and so on. The next point is the need to improve governance overall as was said by my colleague here, hon. Millie Odhiambo, who was involved as a legal officer at the State Law Office at the particular time when we were doing water sector reforms. Governance is very important. I would like to say proudly despite the challenges that some Nairobi people may be facing, Nairobi Water Company is now being rated in the region as one of the best providers in terms of timely bills, reduction of unaccounted for water, sustaining co- operate management systems and so on. However, we need to look into those holes that we need to seal, so that there is less leakage in terms of the actual customer service and adherence to the customer service charter. Improvement of governance will also improve the payment system, the payroll system, the delivery, the response and so on. 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."
}