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{
    "id": 769089,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/769089/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 195,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Nairobi today the level of development in terms of housing - high cost and high rise housing - is a lot and yet, the services for those developments are not there. The last time sewer lines were extended to parts of this city where there were none is a long time ago. Even in terms of water supply to the City of Nairobi, after the Ndakaini Dam was built in the early 1990s, no major supplier has taken over since then, yet you see the City continuing to develop; this means it will require more water, sewerage systems and roads. So, there are actually a lot of missing links within the development agenda in the cities. Madam Temporary Speaker, it is important that the Ministry of Transport, Housing Infrastructure and Urban Development has now brought this policy. My hope is that the policy will be implemented this time and not be shelved again. The policy that is before us is important because it tends to come with a national urban policy, realizing that Kenya is urbanizing at a very fast rate. In fact, it is emerging that at least half of Kenyans will live in urban areas by 2030. However, this urbanization comes with challenges of inadequate infrastructure, services, housing, environmental degradation and also urban poverty and equality, partially as a result of all this. To deal with these challenges, it is important to have a policy like this one which will later on develop into some legislation. It is the high time that we get serious as a country because urbanization is important for development. There is correlation between development and urbanization, but unless we control the rate at which urban areas are coming up without having the corresponding services, there will be serious challenges. There is a serious case for urbanization because the link between urbanization and development, which includes modernization, cannot be overemphasized. But unless we deal with challenges of urbanization, it will just go to waste. Madam Temporary Speaker, if you look at the City of Nairobi or any city today, 60 per cent of the population is found in slums. We have talked about slum upgrading for many years now. I will not talk about it because it is coming in another policy that is on the Order Paper on slum upgrading and prevention. We will use it to deal with slum upgrading. But you cannot govern your urban areas if you do not have proper planning in terms of spatial planning and services infrastructure. All this must go hand in hand. The reason could be because urban planning has been moving from one Ministry to another for several years. However, I know that this policy has been subjected to a lot of public participation. I was the Vice Chair of the Committee on Transport in the National Assembly in the Eleventh Parliament and it was subjected to public and stakeholder participation. Therefore, the product we have today is something that has the input of many people who are concerned. At the end of every chapter of this policy there are issues that are raised and recommendations to deal with that. This is going to be challenging because the recommendations involve harmonization of various legislations, which is important. So, we must face the challenge so that we can deal with our cities. The more you delay the more slums will come up and the more difficulties in accessing them. There is no doubt that it is important to have urban planning since we have the United Nations Habitat headquarters here. We also have the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It would, therefore, be important for us to have serious and implementable policies and legislation in terms of urban development. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}