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{
    "id": 813317,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/813317/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 61,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Our argument is that we must ensure that our Kenyan investors and contractors get the contracts to construct our roads. We must ensure that we go back to our values and ethos. We must deal with our work ethics. I speak about this from experience. When a contractor, who is a citizen of this country born and brought up in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, was given a contract to work on a particular road, the locals were up in arms and said: “We want the road to be constructed by the Chinese.” Where is this mentality coming from? We must interrogate the argument as to why Kenyans now prefer foreign investors to local contractors to do the roads. I think we must change the law to deal with that issue. The Chairperson and the Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Roads and Transportation, Sen. (Eng.) Hargura, must lead us in that Committee to also agree to what extent we can give a contract to a foreign investor. We can start by stating that anything below Kshs2 billion should go to local contractors and then the others can compete with foreign contractors. A good friend of mine, who is a contractor in this country, has never done any job for the last five years. He has been bidding and losing. He has hundreds of machines in his yard, rusting. I feel for him and many other local contractors. What can we do, as the Senate, to change the law? If we just say the competition will be about who is able to access the resources, a foreign contractor – whether a Chinese, Turkish or Chinese-American – can get loans at 3 per cent financed by their own country to come and construct roads. Here, to get a loan, you have to pay 20 – 30 per cent to the banks. How will they be competitive if we do not make the banking sector competitive? How will they be competitive if we do not set aside contracts of certain quantum for our local contractors? So, that conversation must be two-way. What can our local contractors do? How can we improve on our values? How can we ensure that we safeguard the local contractors but on the other hand, be able to change our mindset as a country? Sen. Wetangula talked about some of us who went to the World Cup and it is a fantastic thing. So many people talk about leaders just travelling and they think that we just travel because we want to. We do not.We travel because there is an opportunity for us to learn something and bring it back to make a difference. That is why in the past, President Mwai Kibaki, former Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, and the Ford-Kenya leader, Moses Wetangula who sits here and raised the issue, went to the World Cup. All these people went there and some of them came and translated what they saw to make a difference in this country. Wait until the Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Orengo and I, the Senate majority Leader, table our report here and you will see the proposals that we will give about what we need to do to make a difference in this country. What happened to the five stadia? I hear so many people debate about football and sports from a point of ignorance. Let me speak as a former football player or a Bunge Football Club (FC) player. I gave you an assist to score a goal; you know that. We must start learning because one of the things that we have learnt from Russia and Croatia is that football is not driven by Government but disciplined federations. It is driven by a private sector that recognises and invests in its youth. The football academies in Europe are private entities. Those are some of the things that we will debate when we talk about it later but as a nation, we must change our values and mindset. 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."
}