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"content": "Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir for giving me this opportunity to support this important Vote. It is clear that this Ministry is one of the Ministries that have attracted the highest number of Questions in this House. There is not a single day that we debate in this House and there is no Question to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government. We expect that when Questions are raised here, they are taken with the seriousness they deserve. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Local Government, together with his technocrats, can settle down and see how the problems can be resolved so that Questions do not appear again. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, one of the critical areas, particularly, in the management of land in the main urban centers and cities that this Ministry is the custodian of--- On two occasions, I have raised in this House the issue of cemeteries and, particularly, cemeteries for people of the Muslim faith. In Nairobi, Muslims who reside in the City have a challenge as to where to bury their dead. Kariokor Cemetery is full and the one is Karen is about to be full. I have raised this matter in this House twice and the Minister gave a commitment that, that matter will be addressed. We of the Muslim faith do not take our bodies back to the rural areas. When someone dies, we have to dispose of the body within minutes. We are not like the other communities in the City where, when someone dies, there are celebrations for a week. After that, there is another week to travel to the rural areas. In our case, even if you come from Kisii and you are Muslim, you are not taken back to Kisii. You are buried in Nairobi. Therefore, this is a real challenge that the Muslims are facing in this City in terms of having space to bury the dead. I looked at the budget and that matter has not been factored in. This is a matter that we have raised many times. We hope that next year, we will not have to raise this matter again. We hope we will not bring a Question here so that the Minister can act. I hope this matter will be taken very seriously. I want to join my colleagues who have spoken about the counties. We are moving into a new dispensation. I expected the Minister to provide a lot of information and civic education. How are we going to prepare our counties for the new dispensation that we have? Are we going to have the same kind of councillors, counties and the kind of leadership that we have in our county councils now or that will change? This is a matter that the Minister should have spoken about. I hope that he will provide a roadmap in terms of civic education in almost all the counties and, particularly, pastoralist areas, so that people understand the change of governance and the challenges that the new counties are going to face in terms of managing huge sums of money and political power. The issue of promotion of staff is very critical, particularly in counties like Wajir. We know that there are people who have worked in those areas for 10 to 15 years. Recommendations have been made to the Ministry Headquarters through minutes, but those recommendations are never taken into account. Those recommendations are very important because someone who has worked for 15 years--- Councillors sit down together with the clerk in Wajir, recommend names but they are never taken. That means that somebody at the headquarters, particularly at the personnel division, is not keen to see how those promotions should be done. I have one case of a guy called Abbas Shidie who has worked for over ten years. His promotion request was submitted to the Ministry Headquarters but nothing has happened. I hope that this will be taken up. There should be coordination between the Ministry Headquarters and the councils on the ground. At the moment, there is a disconnect. When a name is recommended and brought to the headquarters, there seems to a lull there. I would like the Minister to be careful and to monitor that more carefully. Finally, Eastleigh is one area in this city which requires specific attention. The economic activities in that part of the city are enormous. The revenue collected there is enormous and yet, when you go there, you will find that the road network is bad. The infrastructure is in chaotic situation. People there are asking themselves what they need to do. That is because they pay taxes, but there are no returns in terms of what they pay. I know that the Minister is sensitive to that issue. He has visited there, but nothing concrete has come out of those visits. I would like to encourage him to see how that part of the City can get returns from the investments it is making to the local authority. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}