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{
    "id": 777028,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/777028/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 311,
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    "content": "governments. We need to engage both the national and county Governments and make them consciously budget for the elimination of slums and provision of decent housing. There is a new vocabulary that I am hearing now which is called “Regeneration and Renewal of Estates”. I have heard of Kariokor bachelors, Jamhuri and a few others. Those houses need regeneration and renewal, no doubt. But that money should be put where our number one priority is and it is not to upgrade Karikor flats. Our number one priority is to remove the squalor in Mathare. Madam Temporary Speaker, in the previous year, a building collapsed in Mathare and we went there to condole with the victims. First, it had been built on a river bank. That is why it collapsed because there were no standards. The foundation was hanging on loose soil of the river and so as the river eroded the basement, the building tilted. What was even frightening is that this was a twelve storied building that had been constructed using barbed wire as metals for holding the structure; barbed wire, ile seng’enge yang’ombe . That is what the contractor had used instead of Y10, Y12 or Y16; barbed wire to hold a structure together. The law requires that before you construct even a kiosk in any urban area, you must have a building plan and Bills of Quantities (BQs) which you must submit to the local authority; they must approve and they must be routinely checked as you construct. So, how did such a thing happen? We lost tens of twenties of people in that human induced accident. Examples are legion and we can go on and on. I am sure the problems which we are describing in Nairobi City County are the same problems which you can describe in Kericho County, Kisii County and Nyalenda in Kisumu County. So, nowhere is better than anywhere. It is the whole country that is an eyesore, that is sick and that needs healing. It is not going to be healed if our focus is on mega programmes and projects whose interest is fiduciary and does not improve the lives of people. I want to urge that a new paradigm shift be encouraged and embraced so that Kenyans are not born in squalor, they live in squalor, they get sick in squalor, they die in squalor, the rich get richer and obscenely richer. Every time, there is a problem, they run there to display their obscene wealth as philanthropists. We do not want philanthropy. We want positive action to make Kenyans live lives worth their living. Madam Temporary Speaker, I want to end by urging the Government side not to bring to us these flawed papers that you want to upgrade a slum. After upgrading, what do you call it? A rose is a rose by any name; it is the smell that matters. Thank you."
}