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{
    "id": 774321,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/774321/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 168,
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    "content": "in other countries. The other day, we went to Tanzania and visited Dodoma Town. Shifting the capital from Dar es Salaam, which was far from the centre, to Dodoma was a personal project of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. Tanzania is still facing challenges of how to make it a habitable and effective place. However, their Parliament operates from Dodoma. Government ministries also operate from Dodoma. The Prime Minister moved to Dodoma and the President is bound to move to Dodoma. What this does is that it opens up the country for us to move away from the rail road, highways and arteries that were defined by colonialists. It will be a good legacy if this Parliament, particularly the Senate, was to come up with legislation or constitutional amendments that shall say that the capital city of Kenya shall be in Isiolo so as to help us open up that northern frontier. We can shift things and let the people of Isiolo and Marsabit counties also benefit from the increase in land prices. If I inherit an acre of land from my father, the teacher, David Ajwang Nyakwamba, I would sell it for Ksh70,000. In contrast, if my brother Sen. Wamatangi - I wish he was here - inherited one acre in Kiambu from his father, Wamatangi senior, he would sell it for something close to Ksh200 million. There is a huge imbalance. Let us shift this capital so that everyone can benefit. If Isiolo becomes the capital, I am sure the people of Tharaka Nithi will benefit much more than they do currently when it is Nairobi. We could even consider Machakos. Konza City; the Silicon Savannah, could form a very good site for a capital, technopolis or technology capital of this country. I want to conclude by bringing the attention of Members to the fact that the requirement for declaration of city status is not just on the number of inhabitants. If we are to look at numbers only, then some refugee camps can claim to be cities. The other thing that caught my attention is the criteria to be considered for an area to be called a city. In there, you will find some interesting things. One of them is demonstrable capacity to generate sufficient revenue to sustain its operation. From the Office of the Controller of Budget reports, none of the counties and none of the units that we have in this country have demonstrated capacity to generate sufficient revenue to sustain their operations. Counties are running budget deficits and yet counties are supposed to run balanced budgets. Another requirement is that it should have demonstrable good system and records of prudent management. One of the roles of the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) is to encourage fiscal responsibility. We need to ask the CRA to issue to the Senate and the nation a fiscal responsibility statement for us to know if our counties have got good systems and records of prudent management. From the reports that we have seen in some Committees such as the County Public Accounts and Investment Committee, Finance and National Planning Committee and the Budget and Appropriation Committee, none of the counties would qualify to be a city if this was a requirement. The other requirement is that for an area to be classified as a city, it must have capacity for functional and effective waste disposal. None of our cities, urban areas or counties can claim to have capacity that is effective for waste disposal. We are going into Easter and many of our colleagues would decide to avoid meat and only eat vegetables. However, it is a very dangerous undertaking in Nairobi City because we do not know the source of those vegetables. Those vegetables are sometimes grown in waste disposal The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}