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{
    "id": 777037,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/777037/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 320,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Pareno",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13180,
        "legal_name": "Judith Ramaita Pareno",
        "slug": "judith-ramaita-pareno"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for giving me this opportunity. I wish to support this Sessional Paper with a rider. The Senate Minority Leader said that we want to eliminate the slums and not upgrade them. However, my thinking is that we should start with upgrading and move on to elimination. That would be progress towards developing our country. Madam Temporary Speaker, I am a bit worried because the problem is not just about upgrading the slums. We must have a holistic approach to the slums that we have in this country. For example, I had a discussion with a gentleman who was a slum dweller and was doing some gardening in an estate. At that time, the Government was upgrading Kibera Slums. I asked him what is view was on the upgrading programme because we were all excited at that time with the slum upgrading programme. He told me that he cannot upgrade and live in a house worth Kshs6,000 when he is sleeping hungry. He thought that it would be better if he is given that house, so that he can rent it out and move deeper into the slums to live in a house that is worth Kshs1,500. This is a deeper problem that we have as a country; it is not just upgrading per se . It is about jobs, resources, education and empowering the people in the slum areas. If we do not empower them, we will still continue with the cycle of the Government upgrading houses and people move on to live in other slums and rent out the houses that are given to them through upgrading programmes. Madam Temporary Speaker, this issue needs a holistic approach. I have looked at the proposed policy. It comes out with clear objectives on how we can uplift the standards of these people. It comes out with ways of improving the economics of the country to empower them, so that we can upgrade and eliminate the slums. The other issue is about the land tenure, which most Senators have talked about. In the slum areas people build houses, but do not have legal ownership. If we could develop some land tenure system and create ownership of the parcels of land that these people have lived on over the years, we might empower them to have collateral because they will have titles to the parcels of land. They will improve their livelihoods by using the title deeds as collateral to take loans. Madam Temporary Speaker, looking at this policy that we are to approve I see an acknowledgement that previous initiatives have been undertaken. One of the bottlenecks in those previous undertakings is that we had instances of corruption and, therefore, we were not able to conclude the programmes that we had--- 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"
}