Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 771169,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/771169/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 175,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Bunyasi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2511,
        "legal_name": "John Sakwa Bunyasi",
        "slug": "john-sakwa-bunyasi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker. I rise to contribute to this Bill. I am completely confused as to whether it is a good Bill or not. I know that when you talk about good planning, it looks like motherhood and everybody needs to support it. However, reading through this Bill, first of all, if it was just simply prose it would be bombastic without conveying the messages clearly as it should. One, there needs to be clear delineation between what the national Government would do and what the county governments should do out of their own volition. This is so that the county government of Busia would do things differently from Lamu, Machakos, Kwale and so on. There is no need for the national Government or institutions in any way to plan for towns which are far away. They have no such business because all that must be local with local capacity and trade. Recently, a local school in my constituency of Nambale wanted to build a computer lab and a science laboratory. They had drawings which had to be approved in Nairobi. Unfortunately, it has taken about four months and they are not yet ready. The principal and the board members have been travelling up and down with no success. It should be localised. There is no reason for it to get beyond Busia and if there are any guidelines, they should remain brief with interpretation and the professional work being done at the local agencies. We think of our counties as Government institutions with people who have inferior qualifications. That is necessarily not the case. We have these big bureaucrats who may be highly qualified in Nairobi but cannot service the country from Nairobi. With that distinction, although I can see a cascading structure it is not in the sense of the word devolved. It is more like delegated. These ought to be decisions that are made locally and it was my first concern on it. Secondly, an institution like the consultative forum that has been set up has everybody you can think of. It has CSs sitting in and it runs into nearly 30 people. Those Government institutions do not work. I think that is just a way of getting people to spend a lot of time and sometimes money for those sitting but certainly, a lot of time, it slows down decision making. That kind of thing is complicated and unnecessary. Though this is the proposed planning law, there will be too much planning and little action on this. There is no building that is expected to be built without the approval of planning officers yet they are still collapsing because there is too much bureaucracy and not enough decision making, with very slow response. It is only when buildings fall that you see everyone showing up and running around and so on. Why do we not have a system that does not allow this construction to proceed, that we would be able to inspect in good time, and not wait until we get the casualties that we are getting? Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I can see a role in which decisions, whether from Nairobi, stand for the national Government; where you want to make strategic decisions, for example, on water towers, where they should be and how that should be handled as a national priority and responsibility; where we make decisions in respect of national and international infrastructure; where you want to make decisions, for example, in respect of environmental sensitive areas like pipelines and things that we do not get into. For the rest of it, allow local governments to make them within devolution of their own decisions and not the ones that must be checked with Nairobi and so on. I do not think that we have seen either quality of governance or expertise application simply because things are coming from Nairobi. I think there are a whole host of problems. So, my view about this Bill is that whereas the principle of planning is sound like motherhood as I said, the way it is done is a convoluted document that still gives a lot of authority to Nairobi in a devolved system where these things should be done locally. If there is going to be a role for Nairobi, then it must be quality check, perhaps monitoring and experience 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."
}