Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 768696,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/768696/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 181,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "but they only work in Nairobi City County and live in Kajiado County, which is in the former Rift Valley province and now Kajiado County. Some people live in Kitengela, Githurai, Uthiru, Kinoo and they say they live in Nairobi City County. All the time, we must appreciate that all these adjacent counties – whether Kiambu, Machakos or Kajiado – are putting pressure on Nairobi City County. Madam Temporary Speaker, it is said that Nairobi City County has a population of four or five million people but that is only at night. During the day, the population of Nairobi City County could be about seven million because of the traffic that comes from Thika. That is why the Thika Super Highway was built, expanded and broadcasted to be a big project. People thought that there would never be traffic on that route. No sooner did the road get completed than we already had traffic on that Highway. The same is true on Mombasa Road. Most of the people who work in Nairobi City County are living in Machakos County; whether it is Mlolongo or Athi River where beautiful houses are coming up there. That is actually what it needs to be because the obsession of owning a house within or adjacent to the Central Business District (CBD) is not necessary, if we can have Kenyans living in Machakos in cheap houses that they can own and working in Nairobi City County. That way, they can save the rest of the money to take care of their families and other family concerns such as education. The other day, I saw Gov. Mbuvi sitting down with the President and Cabinet Secretaries (CSs) discussing the management of Nairobi City County. I saw some people who were ignorant speaking on social media saying: “President Uhuru Kenyatta is micro managing Nairobi City County. Why is he doing so? Why is he directing Gov. Mbuvi on what to do? Why are his Cabinet Secretaries sitting and discussing the infrastructure with Gov. Mbuvi?” Those people have never read the Urban Areas and Cities Act, which makes it very clear that Nairobi City County is a unique in the sense that it is the capital city of Kenya. Other countries which have devolved systems of Government have demarcated the capital city and created a management structure at the federal level. The national level is able to manage the capital city. That is why in Australia, for example, the capital city is an entity that was created purely for management of the country and, therefore, the national Government has a role in running the capital city. In Washington DC, parts of it were hived off from Virginia and Maryland to create an entity that is useful for purposes of running the 50 States in America by the national Government – the Federal State. Now, in Kenya, because of how we conceptualised our devolution, originally, Nairobi City should not have been a county. It should have been an entity being run by the national Government. It should have actually been the place and the seat of Government and, therefore, left to the management of the national Government. It would then have been easy to discuss all these other issues. Once we made Nairobi City a county – of course, we believed that our Constitution was right to do so because we cannot doubt or second guess what we have already passed. It was then necessary to provide under the Urban Areas and Cities Act to say that in matters of management of urban infrastructure, security and so on, since this is the seat of the national Government and the diplomatic headquarters of the country, it was The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}