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{
    "id": 725106,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/725106/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 368,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Anyang'-Nyong'o",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 193,
        "legal_name": "Peter Anyang' Nyong'o",
        "slug": "peter-nyongo"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will be very brief and I will not speak for more than five minutes. I want to say the following. First, I agree with Sen. Elachi that we have created too many authorities and boards in the road sector. We have four boards and four authorities and I do not understand the rationale. We have two mischiefs in our management of roads. The first one is to distinguish between local and trunk roads; in other words, local and national roads. A road that goes from one county headquarters to another one is a national road. A road that meanders within the county from one market to another is a local road. So, if we had made a distinction between local roads and national roads, local roads would be under counties and national roads would be under the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA). The third category of roads is urban roads found in, for example, Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, Mombasa and Thika; those are all urban centres and there should be a criterion for classifying urban roads as opposed to market centre roads. If we only had these three categories; national trunk roads, local roads and urban roads, maneno kwisha. However, we have four boards and four authorities and roads, as Sen. Elachi said, with all kinds of classification. This is an overkill and I hope that the Committee on Roads and Transportation will look at this carefully and make it simpler. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, secondly, we know that what has bedeviled Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) and Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) is the tendering for constructing roads. Bodies are established to control tenders for roads and to get kickbacks and therefore hand over to us substandard roads. This also happens in counties. If you look at county budgets for the so-called development, you will see that it goes largely to roads infrastructure. All kinds of contractors have emerged, let loose in the counties and county officers are all kinds of relations with the contractors. If you go to county assemblies, you will find that all kinds of MCAs are themselves contractors using all kinds of companies to tender for roads in the counties. We know that the Constitution does not allow conflict of interest. After they have got the contracts, they have to give kickbacks to county officials. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have got poor roads in the counties yet a lot of money has been used. This is what the law should cure. What are we going to do to make sure that roads built in counties are standard roads? Are there some standards in this law that says that when you build a local road or a road connecting one city to the other, these are the standards for constructing the road? 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"
}