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{
    "id": 949255,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/949255/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 48,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Eng.) Maina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 75,
        "legal_name": "Ephraim Mwangi Maina",
        "slug": "ephraim-maina"
    },
    "content": "I sometimes feel ashamed when we talk of the county governments and the large sums of money that we are pumping into them. So far, we have pumped over Kshs1.8 trillion to the counties. If you go around this country, you should be able to see a project in every county serving the people either an ultra-modern hospital or school. What do you witness when you go around the country? You witness big cars moving around and there is no money to pay for small things in the counties. There are no drugs in the dispensaries. Therefore, I want to say that this Bill should go further and put an obligation to the county governments to ensure that hawkers are given their own rights. These people can be bigger contributors to our economy than they are at the moment. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if we cast our eyes and imagine the way this country is, there is a lot of unemployment. The best thing we can do is to encourage mwananchi. I would like to see a county government coming up with some simple funding where anyone with a good idea, even a hawker, would be given a small loan the way akina mama come together and raise funds. For example, if you gave these people a loan of Kshs300 million a year, it would go a long way in changing their lives. I am careful to state that we should have designated areas. The reason being that the hawkers are where the business is. If you see hawkers next to a bus stage, it is because that is where people alight and board vehicles. Therefore, they buy when they are boarding the vehicles. What will happen – I have seen this in some counties – is that the hawkers are going to be removed from there and put in some corner where nobody goes. This will not help them. We should have a provision in this Bill for establishment of a committee of various leadership in the county which will look at an area that can be designated for hawkers to do their business. However, if we leave it to the county governments to designate areas for hawkers, they will push them to the corner of town. The people in Nairobi who are coming to Machakos Bus stop because that is where people alight and board buses. There is no need of removing them from there and taking them somewhere in Ruai in an open ground and say that we have designated a place for hawkers. Hawkers choose where to be and that is why in the developed world, you will see that they designate some streets and close them on some days because that is where the people can access the goods. The Bill should have a provision which should state clearly how that designated area will be identified, otherwise, I see a situation where the same hawkers are going to be condemned into some corners of the towns and then they will just end up in more and more chaos. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if people are licensed to doing business and they pay tax, they should be provided with necessary provisions; water, sanitation, and maybe a well- designed place where they can have even a small restaurant. These are the things which we see in the rest of the world and we should strive to introduce them here. If we seriously want to protect and organize the hawkers in this country, we must come out and do a good design. In addition to the county governments trying to organize these hawkers, I beseech that the Bill should have a provision for this House to follow up and ensure that the recommendations we make are implemented. If we say that it will amount to nothing else than just the way we pass budgets, then we all know what happens. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}