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{
    "id": 813663,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/813663/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 165,
    "type": "other",
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    "content": "and you told me that you will be in Kericho, so I will organize for you to get maize. Milk is in abundant at our place but the problem is taking it to the market. The rains even affected Nairobi and as we speak, some roads within the city are inaccessible. I saw the backlash that the Governor for Nairobi City County received. Sen. Kasanga is encapsulating what we are looking at in the Kenya Roads Bill whose debate is still ongoing. One of the salient features of that Bill is the creation of the standards board. When you go to the counties, the biggest problem that we have - Sen. (Dr.) Kabaka, the king of Machakos County knows - is that there is confusion regarding who should be in charge of a road. When you go to the counties, they will tell you that the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA)is in charge of a particular road or they might even say that the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KeRRA) or the county government is the one in charge. The problem is that we now have duplication where you will find a Member of Parliament say that he has allocated the money courtesy of KeRRA then the county government comes and puts a billboard and we end up losing money in such confusion. Therefore, we must agree on who is in charge of which road. Going forward, I know that it will be difficult to do this for there are cartels and we all know that they are very dangerous and you must have seen this in the fight against corruption. Nowadays, the cartels are using corruption as a political tool and you cannot fight impunity with impunity. These cartels will not allow us to merge KeRRA, KeNHA, Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) and the county government. They will never agree to sit on one table because they know that it will be difficult for them to “eat”. Madam Temporary Speaker, these people are busy “eating” our money for there is usually money released for emergency roads repair especially when we have heavy rains in this country. This money is sent to the lowest level but they will not agree to sit. It is normally said that it is bad manners to speak while eating and I think that these agencies are busy eating hence the reason why they cannot talk of how to solve the perennial crisis in terms of management of our roads in the country and in our counties. I hope that the Kenya Roads Bill and the spirit of this Motion will address some of these challenges. I know that it was proposed in that Bill that some boards be created at the county government and that they comprise of all leaders for them to discuss the problems in our road sector. Nowadays, when you sit at a function, the only problem that people discuss is roads. How can we implement the President’s Big Four Agenda if the basics of sustaining the basis and the foundation of the economy of this country is not possible? I have talked to the Ministries and I have made my request. I hope that we can agree, as a Senate, to force KeRRA, KeNHA, KURA, the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development and the Council of Governors (COG) to come to the talking table. Some of these recommendations will not be implemented when we still have confusion on who is in charge of a particular road. The citizens will never understand who the road belongs to and yet all they want is good roads for them to access the market so as to sell their wares. People want good roads to their work places, for circumcision, marriage and other things that are incidental in life that we cannot ignore. The roads must be in a good state. 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."
}