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{
    "id": 769095,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/769095/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 201,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "December 6, 2017 SENATE DEBATES 32 Sen. Seneta",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank You Madam Temporary Speaker for giving me a chance to also contribute and support this Motion on the adoption of the Sessional Paper No. 6 of 2016. In the last four decades, Kenya has witnessed rapid urban growth in the rates of about 5 per cent and also a great population moving to the urban areas which has also impacted and given a lot of pressure to the Government in terms of funding. The rapid growth of urban areas has also brought a lot of challenges to the country because of lack of adequate facilities. Many of our urban areas face quite a number of challenges, like lack of water and sanitation, sewerage systems, youth unemployment rates, lack of security and poor infrastructure. If, today, you walk to all our small urban areas coming up all over the country, not only in Nairobi, but also Kitengela, Kiserian and other small towns around Nairobi, you will always get that there is traffic jam which is brought about by the issue of us not having enough space. Our roads in towns are not well made, and therefore people waste a lot of time entering and going out of town. Many young and energetic Kenyans waste a lot of time on the roads because of traffic jam instead of putting that energy in productive work to benefit the economy of the country. I can say that this Policy has come at the right time to provide a framework for the management of our urbanisation and the urban development of Kenya. However, looking at the framework, I think there are many other regulations and policies that are shelved in our ministries that need implementation. As a country, we also need to have a ministry that deals with urbanisation rather than only having the Ministry of Industrialisation which only deals with industrialisation. We need to have a ministry that deals with urbanisation because urban areas also enhance the economy of this country, promote our Gross domestic product and therefore need a lot of concentration in terms of the implementation of the policies. We need to put a lot of emphasis on planning. Our urban centres are just growing without proper planning. That is why you get people building industries within estates, estates coming up in commercial areas, and petrol stations being built within residential areas. It is a fact that lack of planning has contributed to a lot of conflicts and pollution. In fact, there is quite a lot of noise pollution in our towns. People at night experience a lot of noise pollution coming from churches, bars and restaurants which are within residential areas. I think there is totally a mess in terms of planning of our urban areas. We also need to have recreation facilities and services in our towns where the urban population can access sports activities, children can access playfields and also our urban area population can relax during their free time. We have, in our urban areas today people who lack even a place to relax even when you are not working. We also have our youth in our urban areas who have no sporting facilities to use during their free time which is why most of the time, you get them being in bars, insecure places because they have no areas to rest or even play during their free time. In our urban areas, we also need to consider public services like access to schools, hospitals and toilets. In our urban areas today, for example, Kitengela where I come from which is a growing area, there are no enough public toilets within the shopping centre. You therefore, get many people going to help themselves in hotels The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}