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{
    "id": 725090,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/725090/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 352,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, other than setting up the various bodies and classifying roads, this Bill does not do much more than that but allow me to quickly look at the First Schedule which deals with the classifications. Under the First Schedule, all public roads in Kenya are classified either as national trunk roads which are in Part A or county roads. That is in the Constitution already. What has been lacking is the definition of a national trunk road or a county road. To explain how serious this issue has been, last year there was a court case; about 29 counties filed a suit in the High Court contesting some of the powers which were being exercised by the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA), which according to the said county governments, KeRRA had advertised for a number of roads which according to the county governments were supposed to be county roads as opposed to national trunk roads which should be under the jurisdiction of the national Government. So, in that case, the counties got a favourable ruling and froze a number of road construction tenders which had been advertised by KeRRA. That has stalled development of those roads since last year. It is only that not all counties were part of this suit. In the ruling, the judge was very clear that only counties which were parties to this suit could benefit from that freeze on road construction by KeRRA. So, the other counties which were not part of this suit are the ones where KeRRA is still working. Otherwise, KeRRA does not exist any longer now under this new Bill. There has been a lot of contest between KeRRA and county governments with regard to what amounts to a county road and what amounts to a national trunk road. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, according to this Schedule, there are a number of national trunk roads which fall under the national governments. The first one is Category S. These are highways connecting two or more cities meant to carry safely a large volume of traffic at the highest legal speed of operation; for example, the Mombasa-Nairobi- Kisumu Highway. In my view, that should be the best example of an existing Class S road, unless this or future Governments want to create other roads linking major cities. Then we have Class A roads which are roads forming strategic routes and corridors, connecting international boundaries at identified immigration entry and exit points and international terminals such as international air or sea ports. Therefore, these would be roads leading out of the country like the road to the north towards Moyale to Addis Ababa. There is also the road to the south towards Namanga out of Kenya, the road towards Isebania or such roads that are leading to an exit from Kenya. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) is only dealing with Class S, A and B roads. Class B roads are roads forming important national routes linking national trading or economic hubs, county headquarters and other national important centres to each other and to the national capital or to a Class A road. Any road that is linking county headquarters, for example, the road linking the headquarters of Uasin Gishu County, Eldoret to Kapsabet which is the county headquarters of Nandi would be a Class B road according to the definition here. I am trying to make the debate as relevant as possible to the Senator for Nandi, not to the Speaker – and the Senator for Uasin Gishu, of course. Any road linking two headquarters of counties would fall under class B. this is a good improvement. This would mean therefore, the national government would help counties. Inter-county The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}