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"id": 721961,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/721961/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
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"speaker": {
"id": 376,
"legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
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"content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving this opportunity to support this Motion. In supporting the Motion, I want to say that it is anchored under Article 42 of the Constitution that talks about a clean and healthy environment; Article 43 that talks about accessible and adequate housing, and Article 69 on sustainable management and conservation of environment. I, however, want to raise a concern that we are also anchoring this policy on Bills or draft regulations, including a draft Bill on National Housing, draft regulations on building and draft regulations on building surveyors. You know we are not sure whether all those regulations will pass before this House. I would really want to say that it is ill-advised that we anchor this policy on such regulations and a draft Bill. We should anchor the policy on the Constitution and on existing laws, not on draft laws. However, I want to say that I am happy that the draft policy recognises one of the purposes of maintenance as aesthetics. Where I come from, aesthetics is very important. It is not just about the issue of health and safety that other Members have mentioned here. It is also about the historical purpose of the economy. Maintenance of buildings is also linked to historical purposes. Where I come from, aesthetics is very important. I have visited certain countries like Namibia. If you look at the way the capital city of Namibia is structured and the way the houses are maintained, you will realize that streets have buildings coloured the same way. I do not know why in Kenya we think we cannot deal with that. I would also want to say that with regard to the drafters of this policy, sometimes we just want to justify, perhaps, the money that we were given for consultancy. As a country, we need to be realistic about certain issues. For instance, if I were the one drafting this policy, I would only have done two pages. I would have put here the root cause only and not all these long stories about apathy being one of the root causes of poor maintenance of our buildings and what I would call the broken window syndrome. In this country, when one person drops a little piece of paper, by the time you come back, say, four months later, you will find a heap of papers. That is the situation in Kisumu. There is a lot of garbage there that is now an eyesore. I keep wondering, whenever I pass there, whether or not somebody noticed the garbage piling up in that city. In Nairobi it is the same thing. Every single city has that broken window concept that we are hoping somebody will fix it. Who will fix it? We really do not care. We do not give a damn. Secondly, there is lack of maintenance culture. I am told that in our mother tongue vocabulary the word ‘maintenance’ or ‘monitoring and evaluation’ does not exist. Thirdly, another root cause is lack of budgetary allocation, which is also influenced by the first two, that is, apathy and lack of maintenance. I would only give two solutions: training the public for a mental paradigm shift and adequate budgetary allocation. Let us forget about all these irrelevant English and writing 40 pages in documents which mean nothing. We should just do a one-page policy that tells Kenyans to change their attitude, fix things when they are wrong and then take their own environment seriously. We should then tell the Government to allocate money for maintenance. I do not see why we are putting a lot of stories in this Policy Paper and yet we know what the problem is and how to solve it. I, therefore, want to support but how I wish we would shorten it and deal with the problem as it is! Look for the eye of the bull instead of going round in long stories. That is the problem with Kenyans. We talk too much yet act little. It is time to move from rhetoric to action. Thank you and I support. 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."
}