Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 968776,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/968776/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 322,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Igembe Central, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kubai Iringo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1574,
        "legal_name": "Cyprian Kubai Iringo",
        "slug": "cyprian-kubai-iringo"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I am sorry for that mix-up. I was waiting to speak to this. I support the Kenya Roads Board (Amendment) Bill. I thank the Committee and the Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development for coming up with this noble idea. Infrastructure is one of the areas in this country where we have done very little. Very few constituencies or areas have permanent roads. When it rains, we just start from square one with regard to those roads which have not been tarmacked. At the end of the day, we keep on mark- timing in one particular place or road season after season. It is high time that the Ministry puts its foot forward, gets money and tries to make the all-weather roads in our country into the low volume seal roads which the Ministry talks about so that we can go for a season or a year or two without going back to those roads. At this point in time, after these heavy rains, we will start all over again. The Ministry is always crying that there is no money from the Exchequer or that the fuel levy is not enough. Therefore, it is important that we look for other sources of funds. It is not just the Government that is straining. Even the people themselves are straining. The bills of the contractors who have been making those roads have not been paid. They have pending bills yet there is no money to pay them. The same people owe the labourers, suppliers and everybody who was in the chain of making that particular road. Once we get this money, it will trickle down to the local mwananchi who assisted in mixing the ballast or carrying an item from point A to B. In essence, we shall bring our economy back again. We also went overboard during the last elections. The leadership of this country went across the country promising infrastructure, roads and other facilities. At the end of the day, when they went back to the national Treasury, there was no money. When they discovered there was no money, everything was frozen including any new project. Unless the Government goes out of its way through this Bill to look for extra money to be paid within a period of time with a small interest, we shall now be the punching bags of our communities because whatever was promised by the leadership of the country should be fulfilled. Because there is no money to fulfill it and the Member of Parliament (MP) is the one who is on the ground, we will become the punching bags by being asked why this was not done. This is a noble move. Let this money come and the roads be made. Let us use them as we look for funds to repay the same. That is what we have been waiting for. Every other day, we go to see the Cabinet Secretary (CS) Macharia over those roads. He keeps those roads in his books. They are in the files in the system. There is no contractor on the road. In my constituency, there is a road which was started in 2014. To date, out of the 24 kilometres, they have only done four kilometres. Those four kilometres were washed away during these rains. Some money has already been spent and there is no Exchequer for the same. Citizens have been waiting for this road to be done. Therefore, let us expedite this Bill and pass it. I urge my colleagues to pass it. Everybody has a debt. We owe loans individually. Our companies get loans from banks and other people. We get loans to even buy our vehicles, as the Chair has said. You enjoy the services of the vehicle but pay slowly. Equally, let the Government go out of its way and pay pending bills so that those activities can take off. Let them start new projects or the promised projects so that 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."
}