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{
    "id": 549089,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/549089/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 212,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Nuh",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2840,
        "legal_name": "Junet Sheikh Nuh",
        "slug": "junet-sheikh-nuh"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I stand to oppose this Motion to adopt the Report of the Committee. This is one of the best committees we have in this Parliament. They have presented many Reports that have helped this country. I must first of all congratulate the Committee for doing a good job. However, on this one, they have not gone down to properly look at the matters in real perspective. The amount involved in this tender is huge. We are discussing a contract of Kshs43 billion. The speed at which this tender was processed raises questions. This tender took basically one and a half years. It was advertised in January 2013 and by June 2014 it was done. We are aware of contracts in this country worth Kshs10 or Kshs5 billion that have taken three to five years to be processed. The speed at which this tender was done raises a lot of alarm. Is it setting a precedent for this country that we need to go this way in processing tenders of Kshs43 billion in one and a half years or is there something else that we are not seeing in this tender? Number two, I expected the Report to have detailed information about Zakhem International Construction Company that has been awarded this tender. The fact that they are the ones who constructed the first pipeline 36 years ago is not a qualification. We have other companies that did good jobs 40 or 30 years ago but today they cannot perform jobs of Kshs10 million because their abilities and capacities have gone down. So, for us to celebrate that this is the company that constructed the first pipeline 36 years ago is not something worth celebrating because they may have gone down because 36 years is a long period of time. This is a Lebanese company. We have to look at the economies of the countries that we are doing business with. Lebanon is not an economically big country. For us to give a tender of Kshs43 billion to a Lebanese company when we have economies that are bigger than it in terms of capacity is also an issue that raises an alarm. This is because Lebanon is a country that is almost in turmoil. It is a country at war. It has a lot of problems. It does not have good governance. For us to issue a strategic tender like the one for constructing the pipeline of this country to a Lebanese company tells us a lot in this country. It tells us that we are not looking at the domes of doing business in the world. Lebanon does not fall in any place among the countries that are performing well economically in the world. To give a contract of this magnitude to a Lebanese company-- 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."
}