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    "id": 777266,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/777266/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 227,
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    "content": "water, electricity and sewerage. Informal settlements have started coming up along the Super Highway including even the bypasses. So, we need to expand the thinking of this Sessional Paper so that we can accommodate that. As we do that, I have in mind my County of Kirinyaga, and I would not want it to be left out in the Sessional Paper just by way of looking at the Kiberas, Mukuru Kwa Njengas and others. This is because we have villages. If you drive to Mwea, there are about 52 informal settlements. The people in these settlements require decent houses and infrastructure that go with good living. So, we need to ensure that we bring on board even the rural areas especially the counties where we come from. We should not just talk about the towns. We should also look at the villages like the ones in Mwea and see how we can improve them. I have travelled extensively in China where we are borrowing a lot from. If the Chinese Government one day wakes up and decides that the informal settlements need to be upgraded, they just come and develop a modern housing estate. This is something that we need to borrow and benchmark with the best practices. In South Africa, they are trying to do that. It may not have been very successful, but at least they made an attempt. When you talk of provision of these houses and decent living, we may want to look at the informal settlements as gated communities where we develop homes and houses for our citizens and provide them with the necessary services. It is easier to offer services like security, water, and other infrastructure when people are settled together in a gated community. I support the adoption of the Sessional Paper and ask that we expand it so that we capture the interests of the people we represent in the counties that we come from. Somebody mentioned about the participation of the private sector or the business community. When we talk about the gated community, one looks at the various people who will come and develop decent homes that will go for an average of less than Kshs1.5 million if only they were given rewards like tax rebates. If the Government can develop the infrastructure like sewers and roads, and then ask a developer to build the houses, it will make the houses cheaper. When we talk about the slums, I have a problem looking at a place like Zimmerman and Githurai 44. If you look at those places, they should be better organized. The way they are developing, they are moving towards informal settlement. Fortunately, I happen to have lived there many years ago. Lack of sewer and road services are some of the serious problems that people who live in such places face. More often than not, when I pass there, I have always had this idea that the Government may want to buy off such big lands, demolish the houses, put in place the necessary infrastructure and then sell those plots back to the owners at a concession. Mr. Deputy, Speaker, Sir, the Sessional Paper needs to expand. It needs to look at the various issues of provision of housing. In that case, it will give the citizens of this country decent living. With those few remarks, I do support the adoption of the Sessional Paper."
}