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{
    "id": 667500,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/667500/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 200,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Tonui",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1242,
        "legal_name": "Ronald Kiprotich Tonui",
        "slug": "ronald-kiprotich-tonui"
    },
    "content": "because without good roads, we cannot develop this country. The economy of this country cannot improve. In fact, our roads are the economic foundation of this country. I support the creation of these authorities, but I wish we could create a smaller Authority to deal with access roads to institutions of national nature, especially primary and secondary schools. We need to have a category of roads where Members of Parliament can do roads to access schools, which are national according to the Constitution. Whenever we go to our constituencies, we are asked to extend the roads leading to schools so that our children and teachers can access the schools. But through this Bill, we will no longer do that. We will be talking of superhighways, which will make us either relevant or irrelevant on the ground. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, at a certain stage, we may need an amendment to have, at least, some funds to construct some small access roads to schools. If we are unable to put that in this Bill, based on the Constitution, we can have money such as conditional funding to the NGCDF to improve roads to schools, if the NGCDF survives the current court case and I believe it is going to survive. We would have wished KeRRA to continue to the end of 2017, so that we can complete the roads which we have planned to construct in our constituencies. We have done a lot under the KeRRA programme. I wish this would continue. I do not know why we are rushing this Bill. It needs to be slowed down. My other contribution on the issue of roads is about contractors who are doing shoddy work. If all the money for roads is used effectively, I am very sure the state of our roads would be improved. Situations where contractors take more than 60 per cent profit as they build our roads are not sustainable. Our people continue being poor and using very bad roads. Proper utilisation of funds needs to be encouraged. In fact, a standard unit cost of putting murram on our roads or tarmacking based on classification needs to be availed, so that we have a certain guideline in the effective use of public funds. The issue of high potential agricultural areas needs to be considered. In Bomet Central, where we grow tea, our roads are among the poorest in this country. Despite always being in the central power, we have not had good roads. We were there for 24 years and we never did it. I wish we could do it through a law so that our people can benefit and our farmers can deliver their tea in a cost effective manner. Transportation of tea to factories becomes a big issue due to bad roads and this contributes to the high cost of producing tea. There has been a lot of corruption. Members of Parliament are normally taken around to beg Cabinet Secretaries to have certain roads done and this issue needs to be dealt with in this House. We need to be allocating funds directly to roads which are specifically stated, so that we can have equal distribution. The country can be well covered and we can play a certain role on the issue of roads. I wish we could capture specifics instead of having lump sum allocations for Ministries to make a decision on their prioritisation. We are the elected representatives of the people who should know which roads should be prioritised in terms of funding. I also wish issues of prioritisation could be done. I sometime imagine that if we had borrowed an amount similar to what has been borrowed for the SGR of Kshs327 billion to improve roads in our villages, that could spur development much more than even the SGR, which might lead to sacking of many truck drivers who ply the Mombasa-Nairobi route. I wonder where they will go once the SGR is completed yet we need to create employment in this country. There is the issue of governors. I believe this law will clearly specify the roads under the county government and those under the national Governments, so that governors who normally 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."
}