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{
    "id": 776257,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/776257/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 180,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Shaban",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 139,
        "legal_name": "Naomi Namsi Shaban",
        "slug": "naomi-shaban"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. First of all, I want to take this opportunity to thank the membership of this august House for giving us an opportunity to serve in the Commission. The Parliamentary Service Commission Motion awaits the decision of the Senate, but I am sure we are going to sail through. I want to thank all the Members honestly from the bottom of my heart. This has been a long and protracted battle, but we are finally here and we should be able to serve the people. I give my promise that we will work and make sure that the welfare of Members improves, so that we can serve our people in a better and more relaxed manner, because of the issues that we have been facing over the years. This Sessional Paper No.3 of 2016 is such an important Paper. I believe that it should have come earlier because our housing facilities in this country have been a big mess. Housing falls within the big four agenda of the Jubilee Government. Affordable housing has taken centre stage in Jubilee objectives. It is very important for Kenyans to be sheltered. Our Constitution, in Article 43, states very clearly that housing is a right. The Bill of Rights advocates for affordable housing. I believe this Policy will take us a long way in ensuring that we realise what is contained in the Bill of Rights. It is important for us to point out that you cannot have a complete housing policy without referring to land issues. Land issues are a major problem in this country. Acquiring land has been a nightmare. Quite a bit of land was given out erroneously and illegally to some people. |Getting that land back means that the Government will have to spend a lot of money in terms of compensation. The Government needs that land for purposes of carrying out projects which are going to be beneficial to Kenyans. Our environment has been a mess. The other day we were discussing the Sessional Paper on Climate Finance. The Government has looked into the matter seriously and now we have a policy on that. We need to look at the issue of housing broadly. Housing cannot be a stand-alone issue. We need to look at other issues related to it. A lot of issues have been discussed about this Policy, including matters about the environment, land and even how far this Policy has come and where it is intended to take us in terms of affordable housing. It has referred to urban migration, which has been a pain and a very serious problem that we have been facing in this country. Everybody is running away from the rural areas and coming to the big cities and towns to look for livelihood. People are after getting employment. Therefore, this housing policy is quite comprehensive in the sense that it also addresses policy issues on how the Government intends to tackle some of the problems facing the people, including urbanisation and unemployment. The components in the big four agenda that the Jubilee Government is looking at are all related. This housing policy will go a long way not only in giving us affordable housing, but also addressing issues of health. When people are not well housed, they do not have proper shelter and a clean environment certainly, health issues kick in. All that is put together. The food security issue has something to do with where we can put our houses. In the rural areas, most The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}