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{
    "id": 909963,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/909963/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 730,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Pokot South, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. David Pkosing",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2662,
        "legal_name": "Losiakou David Pkosing",
        "slug": "losiakou-david-pkosing"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for this golden opportunity. I am happy and I would like to join my colleagues in appreciating the work done by the Budget and Appropriations Committee. Of course, we all worked very hard because we were prosecuting two items Supplementary Estimates II and the Budget. I want to thank everyone. Further, in their Report, they agreed with our proposals in this manner: They agreed to allocate Ksh186.4 billion to the Department for Infrastructure Road Transport; Kshs93.8 billion to the State Department of Transport, State Department for Shipping and Maritime - Kshs2.38 billion and State Department for Housing and Urban Development - Ksh31.5 billion and finally State Department for Public Works with Ksh4.4 billion. These are the State Departments we oversee as a Committee. I want to thank my Committee for prosecuting these items during the committee stage. Let me make the following highlights about the State Departments that I have just mentioned. On roads, because they are under the State Department of Infrastructure, I want to be honest with you and the House that if there is one item people want in this country is roads. I am looking at my colleague, Hon. Ochanda whom I used to work with somewhere else. He is appreciating what I am saying. What affects this country and will improve it are roads. Everybody in this country wants a road. I am very certain even when the Budget and Appropriations Committee was going round the country doing public participation every Kenyans said they want roads. When I go to take my tea while seated with Hon. Members, they ask me what is there for their roads. Everybody wants roads and once we build roads, we have transformed our country. This is where the rubber meets the road and it is a huge need. When a budget is done based on needs then we should have sat down as a country and agreed to mop up all the resources. I want to ask the Chair that if it is possible we should mop up all resources and put roads as priority number one for this country because this is what everyone wants. Look at the resources we have been allocated under the Kshs96 billion of which Kshs55 billion is Recurrent Expenditure… Therefore, we have about Kshs100 billion going to roads. How many roads are we building in this country? About 1,000 kilometers of roads in various levels whether they are murram, tarmac or highways are due for construction. If you compare that with Kshs100 billion, you will find that the money is not sufficient. That is why I want to speak to the National Treasury and tell them that the people of Kenya want roads. In fact, we also promised them this in 2013 when I was a happy member of Jubilee that, we would build 10,000 kilometers of road. Where are we now? In terms of procurement, we have close to 7,000 kilometers and in terms of “black top” we have about 2,000 or 3,000 kilometers in the whole country. Therefore, there is a huge need for roads in the country yet we have a budget of Kshs100 billion for roads. So, how will it be used? Therefore, I want to use this opportunity to plead with the House to agree with us that this is one single item we need to concentrate on. Look at what I presented to the Budget and Appropriations Committee; there is a budget deficit of about Kshs135 billion in this financial year. Therefore, I am proposing the following going forward in terms of this item of infrastructure and roads. We should think outside the box. We want the House to agree with us and allow the Kenya Roads Board (KRB) to float a roads bond and not infrastructure bond in the next financial year. This is because sometimes 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."
}