Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 781723,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/781723/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 240,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ichung’wah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Chairlady. My thanks to our Hon. Leader of the Majority Party for the opportunity to second on behalf of my colleague Hon. Pkosing. It is in the spirit of collective responsibility as Members of the Jubilee Coalition that I second on his behalf. This Bill on Nairobi Metropolitan Area Transport Authority is very important for this country and more so for those of us who live in the metropolis area, that is, Nairobi, Kajiado, Kiambu, where I come from, Machakos and Murang'a. The establishment of this Authority as a body corporate speaks volumes about the intention of Government. It is intended that we have in place an authority that is a body corporate with the powers to sue and be sued and also one that would implement policies that will govern the transport in the metropolitan areas. Anybody who lives in this city must have experienced difficulties this morning. Personally, I arrived late to the Budget and Appropriations Committee meeting which I was to chair by about 20 minutes. It was all because of the gridlock that was there this morning. Just because of, say, one-and-a-half hours period of rain, a great gridlock was created in town. Nobody was able to move. Therefore, when you talk about managing transport in the metropolitan area, we are not just looking at the Central Business District (CBD). We are opening up this management to the counties surrounding our capital city and that will go a long way to resolving many of the problems that afflict this City of Nairobi in terms of traffic management. This Authority is being given powers under this Bill to regulate, license and manage public service transport operators. They will be given licences to operate for five years. They will have designated routes where to operate from. Therefore, the chaos that we have been seeing in the matatu industry will be a thing of the past once this Authority comes to be. If transport is managed well in the capital city and the outlying counties, that will greatly help ease the congestion in Nairobi. It will also reduce the proliferation of slum areas. It will even open up new cities in the outlying districts. Think of the Konza City in Machakos, which is just a few kilometers from here. For you to commute from Westlands, through the CBD, to Konza, it would probably take you more time than you would move from Westlands to Eldoret! It is true! At one point, I had a meeting scheduled somewhere on Mombasa Road near Mlolongo. From Westlands, it took me more time than it would take a person to travel to Nyeri. In fact, a friend who was travelling to Nyeri got there well before I reached the junction to the airport. It was all because of a traffic gridlock along Mombasa Road. So, when we finally set up an Authority to help manage these issues we would also be addressing what was in the sessional paper on housing, which we passed here. This Government has committed to build 500,000 houses in the next five years. The thing is that we cannot have all those houses in Nairobi; we must look at opportunities to build part of those houses in Kikuyu, Mlolongo, Murang’a, Kajiado, Isinya and all those outlying areas. For people to go and live in those far-flung areas and for me to commute from Isinya and attend Parliament by 9.30 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."
}