Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 775039,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/775039/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 303,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "cannot differentiate what is the rural area and what is the town or the urban centres and these are the needs that are required. If you look at Hong Kong, basically, it is a town and a city on its own. The same applies to Singapore; basically a city in itself on its own, but by provisions of services. In Malaysia, for instance, the concern and the concentration they have put on their environment, the provision of clean water, health services, security in those areas and ICT, today, Hong Kong is a thriving city with a very high population. Singapore is a city you admire.When you get at the Singapore Airport, the surrounding and the environment is acceptable. However, when you walk from Tom Mboya Street to Moi Street, you will see the amount of garbage. The stench you meet there and we say we are living well, we are not! As legislators, we now have both the moral and political responsibility to ensure that the resources that are collected for this nation are equally distributed in equal measure in a particularpercentage to our rural centres so that these structures we are proposing, which I support, can then serve as a template for reaching out to the population at the rural level. Then we would say this country is truly on the development path. At the Committee Stage, I will be excited to see what the Government side is planning to do. We are with you, we are supporting you and we are not shying away from this support because all these people belong to Kenya. We must create a favourable environment for these structures to survive, to be adopted and implemented in a meaningful manner. I can go to Keroka and tell the people there that they are now qualified for the status of a Town. They will be excited and sing my name the whole day, but at the end of the day they will ask me: Prof. Ongeri what have you put on the table for Keroka Town to be at the Municipality level? If the road network within that town and the health centres around that area are not complete, if the Primary and ECD schools are not in place, if the courts are not there for crime control and the security system is not there, then these are the issues that we should interrogate in our minds. Once we are satisfied, the fundamental issue is the resource flow to these areas. Let us not be greedy about the resource flow. Let us generously accept that we need to support our Rural-Urban development programmes and structures, then use the new urban agenda which I had the pleasure of negotiating on behalf of this country. I almost died in South America. They can then have a meaningful structure in uplifting these urban centres because there will be support coming in, one way or the other, once we are properly organized. So, I want to support this with a clear understanding that we are creating a structure to be followed by the flow of resources, both internal and external, to support the development of our people to another level so that we do not become paupers. We do not have to be poverty stricken all the time. The whole idea is to improve the income of our people. Therefore, this structure will then be held as something that we have created as the Senate and as a Parliament which considers the plight of our people. With those few remarks, I support with those amendments. Thank you. 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."
}