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{
    "id": 768878,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/768878/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 144,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Oundo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13331,
        "legal_name": "Wilberforce Ojiambo Oundo",
        "slug": "wilberforce-ojiambo-oundo-2"
    },
    "content": "Thank you Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute on this Bill. I support it. But before I do so, I need to correct the Members who have spoken before me on the exact role of a building surveyor. Being a member of the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya (ISK) and having just left the lecture halls to join the National Assembly, I know exactly what they do. These members belong to the Institution of Surveyors of Kenya and are the only members who have not had a substantive Act to regulate their activities since the institution was formed in 1969. Land surveyors have an Act of Parliament regulating their work.Valuers and estate management surveyors have two Acts of Parliament that regulate their activities. That is why, in the case of building surveyors, this Bill is long overdue. I remember this is a journey we started some time back and aborted because of the definition of the scope of a building surveyor. I am happy it has come to fruition. We now need to proceed and finalise the Bill. A building surveyor generally comes at the tail end of the project. They are basically people who manage buildings. They are not involved in the construction stage and are not construction managers. The duty of ensuring that buildings are constructed according to plan within cost and safety belongs to the design team and construction managers. Of course, the building surveyors come in at a later stage. They ensure the buildings are sound. They undertake conditional survey occasionally to ensure that buildings remain strong and habitable. Obviously, cases of buildings collapsing once they are occupied should never have happened when a building has a building surveyor in charge. That is why you find in many instances most building surveyors are employed by the national Government and the county governments to do building inspection to ensure that they are structurally sound and can accommodate people. They ensure that buildings are habitable at all times. This is a sound Bill. However, there are many areas that require amendments. If you go through a number of clauses in the Bill, we will be moving to make quite a number of amendments especially on Clauses 35 and 37. They will require substantial amendments to put them in line with the modern practice and align it to other pieces of legislation in respect to real estate and related activities. When we get to that point, we will clearly make those amendments. I concur that the spirit is good, the drafters have made their best efforts, but of course, those amendments are necessary. To conclude, the problem in this country has been enforcement and policing. We have so many people who masquerade as real estate experts in this country who are literally quacks. We hope that with this new Bill together with the other Bills that regulate real estate practice, the police, together with the Valuers Registration Board, the Estate Agents Registration Board and 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."
}