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{
    "id": 783506,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/783506/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 96,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kimunya",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 174,
        "legal_name": "Amos Muhinga Kimunya",
        "slug": "amos-kimunya"
    },
    "content": "I know that because I started the initial work on this Bill when I was the Minister of Transport. It is an old Bill. It has been developed over time. The whole thinking about this transport system for Nairobi is so that, if one is coming from Murang’a, Kiambu or Kajiado and because of the devolution of transport to the counties, there is order. If all these counties have different systems for managing transport, we end up with a very discordant way of doing things. A matatu coming from Murang’a will be travelling to up to Thika using a system that is designed in a way that it will then go Kiambu Road and finally Nairobi. We will end up with lots of hot porch issues coming out, and you never know what happens. Transport is supposed to be seamless. If you look at the mass transport systems, you are talking of how people are moving from Nairobi to Murang’a, Mombasa or to all other places without all these bottlenecks we currently see. When Thika Road was designed - this is a typical example - we got lots of lanes getting out of Nairobi, but when coming back into the city, you end up with lots of bottlenecks. It is because all these things were done without that interconnectedness. That is the rationale behind this Bill. Let us not look at it as something that is generic to every metropolis. The transport system in Mombasa may be affecting Kilifi, Kwale and Mombasa and not necessarily all the other counties. That is one of the things that I wanted to help Hon. Kajwang’ appreciate as part of the Nairobi stakeholders. I was surprised the Hon. Member for Mathare expressing shock that he has not seen this Bill or he was not aware about it, yet notice was given in this House of a Bill coming and it was available in Room 8. As a stakeholder in Nairobi, I would have expected him to be the first one to pick it, seek where consultations are taking place and guide us in terms of some of the areas that we have left out so that the Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing can get the benefit of what is missing in this Bill. That said and done, I believe we should all support it. I know some concerns have been expressed which Hon. Speaker will be guiding us on, but the most important thing is to know that this Authority will now be run on a long term basis, and devoid of the politics that come with elections every five years. We are talking of body corporate that can remove all these politics and all these issues that come with politics of the day and look at the management of our transport systems into the future by coming up with the plans every ten years. We are not just talking of Hon. Kajwang’ being a Member for five years and some of the things he wants to do within those five years, but we are talking of something that transcends generation of leadership. This is because we are talking of the long term view in terms of the growth of the cities and the metropolis – when Nairobi eventually joins with Kajiado and Kiambu; especially interconnection of counties – on the developments taking place within each of those counties. How do the transport systems get enlarged? We are seeing in Upper Hill, how plans for the vehicular traffic and how you plan for the trains and all these plans coming; within a holistic planning framework rather than each standalone plan."
}