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{
    "id": 501038,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/501038/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 217,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Aden",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "The roads that have been mentioned are alternative routes to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). That is where there is a real problem. If you decide to take that road coming from the Airport, it could take you hours to get to Nairobi. Unfortunately, because of the poor condition of that road, it also has spill-over effects to the main highway entering the Nairobi City, which is Mombasa Road or Uhuru Highway. That is because traffic that will have alternatively used Jogoo Road is now forced to use one main road and that causes a lot of traffic. Driving right now from where we are to Industrial Area, which would normally take you 10 minutes, will otherwise take you an hour or even more. Coming back is even far worse in terms of time. It is time that we modernized Jogoo Road to reduce those very uncomfortable effects of the traffic jam. Reduction of traffic jam will also have a reduction in costs because if you sit in that vehicle and your engine is running--- Time and again, I find myself trying to calculate and estimating the number of vehicles sitting in that traffic jam and trying to get the amount of fuel that they waste in terms of costing; within an hour, we could easily be blowing away millions of shillings which, otherwise, would have been saved and would have been a wealth that stays and remains in our economy. Unfortunately, the traffic jams have one of those effects. The other one is that pollution is also becoming a problem. People living around the main roads with a lot of traffic jam are living in conditions of very high pollution. That is because you have hundreds of vehicles at any one time emitting those very hazardous emissions from the exhaust pipes. Nairobi is becoming polluted because of that particular reason. Otherwise, that vehicle would have run a journey of 10 minutes and would have been parked somewhere and switched off. But now, that engine has to run for two or three hours for a journey of otherwise 10 minutes and, therefore, emits lots of very hazardous pollution into our air. It is one of the areas that we often not take note of, but I can tell you that it has an impact on our health and the environment within which we live. Sometimes, you will sit in those traffic jams and get stressed up because it is not very easy sitting for three hours at one point and you have very important engagements to attend to. I want to believe that those long traffic jams have also the effects of causing people to suffer in terms of health. Security is also becoming a nightmare. There are now people or young boys who live on those streets. They walk along those traffic jams snatching phones and picking bags from cars because you are helpless. Those street thugs pluck out the side mirrors of your vehicle and literally walk away from where you are and there is not much you can do about it. This encourages insecurity. It is even encouraging armed robbery. They come to your window with guns and demand for your money. The modernization of that main road will go a long way in solving those issues, from a traffic point of view, that I have just mentioned. As hon. Gakuya has rightly said, the modernization of the markets is another very important aspect. I agree with my colleagues that it is a nightmare to even think of going to do shopping in those markets right now. I want to say that we need to borrow a leaf from what other countries in our neighbourhood have done. I have particularly admired what the Ethiopia as a country has done with its main market, which is called “Merkato”. That is one thing that we need to borrow a leaf from because not very many years ago, Merkato was an open air market and almost inaccessible, just as those markets 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."
}