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{
    "id": 93289,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/93289/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 190,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. M.M. Ali",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Ministry of State for Special Programmes",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 74,
        "legal_name": "Ali Mohamud Mohamed",
        "slug": "ali-mohamud-mohamed"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support Vote D20 of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. I would like to begin by commending this Ministry and its staff for a job well done. This Ministry is very important yet it has been under-funded for too long. In fact, it is not an under-statement to say that it has been neglected. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at Nairobi for example, the last large project they have done is the Ndakaini Dam. That was in 1989/1990. Today, we complain about lack of water in Nairobi. The last water project which was done in Nairobi was the Ndakaini Dam. In Mombasa, the last water project was Sabaki Water Project in 1981. Today we complain there is no water. How can there be water in those cities if there has been no funding to this Ministry? It is time this Ministry got properly funded. It is time this Ministry undertook major projects. It is time that the work of this Ministry was taken seriously. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this Ministry undertook reforms in the year 2002. The pace of reforms has been fast but that has never been matched by the capacity that the Ministry requires to implement those institutions. The same staff who were in the Ministry were spread to those institutions such that today the Ministry lacks capacity. The capacity has dwindled. The establishment is over-stretched. There is skeleton staff in all the institutions. I think there is need for the Ministry to rationalize and see how best it can use the staff that it has. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, moreover, no engineers or serious recruitment has been done in that Ministry. I happened to be a staff of that Ministry. I worked there for about 20 years. When we were at the university, they came to hunt for us. Out of 55 engineers, 34 were taken to that Ministry. It was that serious then. It was in 1978. Today, I do not see the reason why we are not employing the engineers to do the work. With the proliferation of districts in this country, one member of staff who is a water engineer is loitering in large districts like Mandera with no staff. He has no plumbers, electricians and other middle-level officers. I think the capacity must be addressed in that Ministry. In arid and semi-arid areas, the Ministry has been doing very well. But I would like to appeal to it that during the drought, it should have emergency interventions with the assistance of the Ministry of State for Development of Northern Kenya and Other Arid Areas, which has done a wonderful job. I want the Ministry to invest in water bousers so that in the dry season, it can supplement those activities. I think the issue of water companies must be addressed. Because of lack of capacity, it is necessary for the Ministry to intervene and, at times, have its own staff to run the water supplies. Having an irrigation infrastructure is a very important thing if we have to produce food in this country. The Irrigation Department was curved out of the Ministry of Agriculture. There seems to be some lack of synergy between the Ministry of Agriculture and Minister of Water and Irrigation. That is because some members of staff of the Irrigation Department are in that Ministry while another group is somewhere else. Production of food is vested in the Ministry of Agriculture. I think the Ministry must be left alone to design the structures for that Ministry, so that actual irrigation can take place. That is how the Government is organized and I think there is some mismatch. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to end by congratulating the Ministry for a job well done. I urge the Ministry to continue doing more and take the issue of staffing seriously, so that we will not have wastage of resources. That is because, as we speak today, every district is manned by one or two officers. The Water Services Department has no capacity. The officers cover very large areas and it is important that the issue of reforms be re-looked again so that we can rationalize the staffing levels of those institutions. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}