Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to lay the following Papers on the Table of the Senate today, Wednesday, 28th February, 2018:- (a) Report of the 47th Session of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Parliamentary Assembly and Inter-Sessional meeting of the African, Caribbean and Pacific – European Union (ACP-EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly held in Brussels on 9th to 12th October, 2017; (b) Report of the 48th Session of the African, Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Parliamentary Assembly and the 34th Session of the African, Caribbean and Pacific - European Union (ACP-EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly held in Haiti on 13th to 20th December, 2017.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to give notice of the following Motion:- THAT, this House notes the Reports of the 47th and 48th Sessions of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Parliamentary Assembly and the Inter Sessional meeting and the 34th Session of the African, Caribbean and Pacific – European Union (ACP-EU) The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to give notice of the following Motion:- AWARE THAT the National Council for Persons with Disabilities was established through the Persons with Disabilities Act, 2003; FURTHER AWARE THAT registration of persons living with disabilities is a function of the National Council for Persons with Disabilities; ALSO AWARE THAT persons living with disabilities are estimated to be about 10 per cent of any given population; COGNISANT THAT for purposes of registration of persons living with disability, it is a mandatory requirement for one to undergo medical examination by a registered medical officer in a registered and certified health facility; AWARE THAT medical services are now a devolved function; CONCERNED THAT of the nearly 4 million Kenyans living with disabilities who reside in Kenya, there is a very small fraction of the number which is duly registered; FURTHER CONCERNED THAT without proper registration, many persons living with disabilities are denied services because they lack the necessary proof of disability; ALSO CONCERNED THAT owing to lack of accurate data on persons living with disabilities, the government at both levels cannot plan properly for this category of people; NOW THEREFORE, the Senate calls upon the National Council for Persons with Disabilities in collaboration with Ministry of East African Community, Labour and Social Protection and county governments, to carry out a nationwide registration of all persons living with disabilities in order to determine their exact population to facilitate effective service for this marginalized group of our society.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, pursuant to Standing Order No.46(2)(b), I rise to seek a Statement from the Chairperson, Standing Committee on Education on the registration of schools and inadequate school facilities in primary and secondary schools in the country. In the Statement, the Chairperson should:- The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Can the Chairperson or Vice Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Education give an undertaking?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I give an undertaking that we shall give a response in the next two weeks.

Sen. (Dr.) Milgo, is two weeks okay?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, two weeks is okay.

Hon. Senators, for the convenience of the House, we will come back to Order No. 8 later. I, therefore, direct the Clerk-at-the-Table to move to Order No. 9.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to move the following Motion:- THAT, pursuant to Section 25 (7) of the Public Finance Management Act and Standing Order 174 (7) of the Senate, this House adopts the Report of the Standing Committee on Finance and Budget on the 2018 Budget Policy Statement (BPS), laid on the Table of the Senate on Tuesday, 27th February, 2018. Mr. Speaker, Sir, pursuant to the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, 2012, Section 25(2), the National Treasury submitted the 2018 Budget Policy Statement. The Budget Policy Statement was laid on the Table of the Senate on 14th February, 2018. Pursuant to the PFM Act Section 25(7) and the Standing Order 174 of the Senate Standing Orders, the BPS was committed to the Standing Committee on Finance and Budget for consideration and it was brought to the Senate within 12 days. The Budget Policy Statement is an important document that sets out the broad strategic priorities and policy goals that govern the national and county Governments in the preparation of their respective budgets, both for the coming financial year and the medium term. It contains, among others, the following:- (1) An assessment of the current state of the economy and a financial outlook of the medium term including macroeconomic focus. (2) The financial outlook with respect to Government revenues, expenditures and borrowing over the next financial year and over the medium term. (3) The proposed expenditure limits for the national Government and indicative transfers to county governments. (4) The fiscal responsibility principles and financial objectives over the medium term including limits of total annual budget. Mr. Speaker, Sir, pursuant to Standing Order No.174(5), the Committee invited the Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury, Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA), the Council of Governors (CoG) and the County Assembly Forum (CAF), among other stakeholders. Further, the Committee invited the Senate Standing Committees which oversight different state departments to consider the respective sector provisions in the BPS and forward the observations and recommendations. The Committee also received submissions from the Parliamentary Service Commission, Vote 2041. The Committee in making recommendations and the report, considered the views of all the stakeholders and made significant observations on the BPS policy proposals for 2018/2019 and the medium term, identifying broad policy issues with great impact on counties and proposals on revenue allocation. From the perspective of the Senate Committee and the role of the Senate in protecting the interest of counties, the broad issues in the 2018 Budget Policy Statement (BPS) can be categorized as follows:- The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise to second this Motion as proposed and moved by my Chair. Basically, my submissions would really be to elucidate further on the Committee’s Report. From the onset, we really had an extensive consultation between various Standing Committees of this august House and also key stakeholders that fall within the ambit of our Committee. It is very important to note that the resource envelop of this country is inelastic. Therefore, we must adequately share it within the two levels of government; that is, the national Government and the county governments. One of the things we noted is that the role of the BPS is really to establish the ceiling. This is the ceiling which need to be adhered to as we move towards the Appropriations Bill in the cause of this financial year. However, a key plank of this BPS is the big four agenda which are geared towards food security, manufacturing, universal healthcare and affordable housing. Food security can only be achieved if we enhance our agricultural activities. Universal healthcare will be achieved through health facilities and qualified personnel. The issue of manufacturing will be realised through industrialization. These four aspects fall under the mandate of devolved governments which will drive them to fruition. The BPS needs to be very clear on the linkages between the big four agenda and the roles of county governments. This has to be done in partnership. This is a national vision. In the same vein, it will be important to ensure that we have a clear Medium Term Plan of the Kenya Vision 2030. That is 2018 to 2022 masterplan that clearly stipulates the theoretical and underpin things the Jubilee administration would like to see accomplished. However, we noted there is no proper point of reference. We may be aware that something is in the pipeline and county governments may use it to develop their County Integrated Development Plans. This is the only way to ensure that they also espouse aspirations of these big four agenda. I propose that we have a sessional paper of the Third Medium Term Plan (MTP3) so that people can fully understand what it is all about the big four agenda. Why? If this is left on its own, then the ownership will be a great loss to this country. The Chairman talked about the issue of timelines. We reckon that 14 days that is given for the BPS is not enough. After we finish our process, counties are also supposed to develop their county fiscal strategy paper. However, the practice is that officers in counties are only copying and pasting the BPS without proper digestion of the same. This is counterproductive. It becomes just a national document without necessarily speaking to the realities of the counties as it were, which is really the essence of devolution. Mr. Speaker, Sir, on pending bills, we, as a Committee, were surprised by the ballooning pending bills in counties. Our Committee was also able to benefit from the The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Senator, do not contradict yourself. Hon. Senators, before I propose the question, I wish to bring to your attention that today is the deadline for approval of this BPS. Therefore, I ask that you to stay in so that you are able to take the vote.

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

What is your point of order?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, pursuant to Standing Order No.100 and considering the interest on this matter and the desire to ensure that we have the necessary vote, I propose that you limit the time for speaking to five minutes for the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders and three minutes for the other Senators.

Mr. Speaker, sir, this House is not a rubberstamp. We cannot limit ourselves to acclaim a document that we are supposed to critic. I oppose that proposal. I am entitled to an hour and I will spend the whole of it on this document. I am opposing the proposal. You had given me the Floor and since you have not told me to sit down so that you rule, I will go on.

Order, Sen. Wetangula. In the interest of time, I will give the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders 30 minutes, then the rest five minutes.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, as I stand to contribute, I want to encourage Members to sit and listen to debate in this House and not to be driven by impatient and unhelpful agenda that does not help this House. This BPS is supposed to be the philosophical foundation upon which the budget springs. It is supposed to explain to the country the manner in which the budget is being crafted, areas of emphasis, interests and why some As representatives of the people, counties and their governments, it is an assault on our integrity for anybody – to say the least, a leader – to propose that we acclaim a document and turn ourselves into voting machines. Mr. Speaker, Sir, this document has a lot of gaps. I belong to the Committee on Finance and Budget and I could see that my Chairperson, as he was moving, he was very shy. He tried to read very fast so that some of the issues do not come out clearly---

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

That is my opinion about what you were doing.

What is your point of order?

You are not on the HANSARD.

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir. Is it in order for the Senate Minority Leader to insinuate that I am shy? How does he gauge my shyness?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is a perception; and that is my perception. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you look at this document, I will quickly go through issues that Members who represent counties cannot. First, the share being proposed to be allocated to counties is too little, because the Committee is proposing that the 47 counties be given just about Kshs327 billion out of the trillions. But what is worrying me is this; The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

What is your point of order?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, is it in order for the respected Senate Minority Leader to use words that, in terms of the dictionary and in actual sense, can be defined to be un-parliamentary because they sound derogatory? It is an abuse of his power.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, ‘rigmarole’ cannot be derogatory. Google it on your phone and you will know what it means.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me carry on to the question of public debt. I am happy that the Chairperson mentioned in passing about the ballooning public debt. In fact, the public debt in this country has reached a crisis moment and yet more and more borrowing is being done. However, the question that you, Senators, should be asking yourselves is this: When money is being borrowed and syndicated through Eurobond and any other The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

I can see your intervention, Sen. Mugo. What is your point of order?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, is it in order for the Senate Minority Leader, whom I normally respect, to mislead Kenyans and those people who will pay these loans on the Floor of this House about the money that is being borrowed without telling this House about the development which has been done? Have you mentioned all the roads that are being constructed in North Eastern and all the other development that is taking place there? Which country on earth ever developed with its own money without having to borrow? Even the great America borrows money for development. You should stop misleading Kenyans for partisan politics.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I know the distinguished lady has arrogated herself the capacity and authority to defend the manna, but---

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

What is your point of order?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, you have to bring this House to order. I was watching the Senate Minority Leader speaking, and he insulted the Vice Chairperson of this Committee. The Vice Chairperson raised a point of order and you never ruled on it. If we continue like this, this House will deteriorate to a House of insults. There must be order and that order can only come if the Speaker is firm on his rulings about respect for this House.

Okay. Your point has been noted. Sen. Wetangula, moderate your language and use parliamentary language.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, the distinguished Majority Leader cannot sit in his office, glue himself to the television and run here with frivolous points of order.

Order, Sen. Wetangula!

Mr. Speaker, Sir---

The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Proceed.

Order, Senators! Order! Senate Minority Leader, please respect the House and moderate your language as you proceed.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, the public debt is totally unmanageable. I want to remind my distinguished colleague and sister, Sen. Beth Mugo, about what the Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) told us, as the Senate Committee on Finance and Budget, where Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. and Sen. Rose Nyamunga are Members; and Sen. (Eng.) Mohamed Mahamud is our Chairman. The CRA cautioned us that that the borrowing being done in this country is not for the benefit of all Kenyans, yet the debts are paid by all Kenyans. You cannot dispute that. Equally important is that Kenya cannot get into an avalanche of borrowing simply because the United States of America (USA) also borrows. I have never heard such a flawed argument. We can only borrow if we can manage our public debt. Today, our debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio is above 50 per cent; we are now doing close to 60 per cent. These debts are going to come round and haunt us. Mr. Speaker, Sir, anybody who does not see that the bulk of our income is going to debt service does not live in this country. You then qualify to be a character in a book by Chinua Achebe called The Trouble with Nigeria. In this book, Chinua Achebe says that he heard his President say that corruption in Nigeria had not reached pandemic levels. He then says that anybody who says this is either a fool, a crook or does not live in Nigeria. I think some of us live in a paradise different from Kenya. Otherwise, even a standard one child knows that we are running a debt that we cannot manage. Secondly, Mr. Speaker, Sir---

My sister, Sen. Beth Mugo, you will have an opportunity to contradict me. Just keep your cool, Madam.

On a Point of Order, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

What is your Point of Order, Sen. Beth Mugo?

You do not shout at me because I did not. Do not bring partisan politics here.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, there is nothing that is far from the truth. This House is partisan, and that is why we have the Government Side and the Opposition Side. How can she say that I should not bring partisan politics here, unless you do not live in this country? Mr. Speaker, Sir, my next point is about the debts in the counties. You have been a governor yourself. Unless there is a Marshall Plan and intervention---

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

What is out of order?

Let us have order, please. What is your Point of Order, Sen. Mwaura?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, is it in order for the distinguished Member of the House to continue addressing Members directly and even misleading this House that the CRA stated that our debts are not sustainable, yet it is not on record? The Member is usually absent in the meetings of the Committee on Finance and Budget three-quarters of the time. Is he in order?

It is a matter of fact!

Mr. Speaker, Sir, the distinguished nominated Senator thinks he can derail me, but he will fail. Let me carry on. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I was on the point about county debts. We have been told that county debts now stand at over Kshs 90 billion. The Controller of Budget appeared before our Committee. I have a lot respect for the distinguished lady; she was my year- mate at the University of Nairobi. But she did not give us any evidence; she just made callous statements like ‘some are fictitious, some are imagined, some are not debts’ and so on, and so forth. She left our Committee without any empirical evidence that some of these debts are fictitious or are not real other than a statement she made to the Committee. Be that as it may, even if the public debt now being owed to Kenyans by the counties stood as little as Kshs 30 billion and not the Kshs 95 billion we are talking about; that is still a worrisome situation. Why? Because the people who are trading in goods and services with the counties are the ordinary Kenyans who are now being bankrupted by banks for not being paid. These are people we represent. There are young men and women in their categories who are struggling traders in the village; who go and kneel before bank managers to borrow as little as Kshs 30,000 to service a Local Purchase Order (LPO) from the county. Yet, three years down the line, they have not been paid. Interest alone eats away everything and they are on the highway to bankruptcy. This is devolution gone wild. Until and unless the national Government sits down with the county governments and comes up with a Marshall Plan--- As a matter of fact, the Public Finance Management Act is very clear that you cannot procure goods or services unless you have a budget line and money to pay for it. So, where has the Kshs 95 billion gone to? What has happened to the institutions of governance in this country? The Office of the Auditor- General, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) are not doing enough. Everybody is sleeping on the job because those governors who have procured services knowing they have no budget line nor money and are sending Kenyans to bankruptcy, have committed economic crimes against the people of Kenya. A remedial step must be taken to arrest this situation. When I say this, some of my colleagues start behaving as if they are being electrocuted. We are not talking about their money; this is the money of the people of Kenya. We must speak for the ordinary man and woman on the streets of Nairobi. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

On a Point of Order, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

What is your Point of Order, Senate Majority Leader?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I keep insisting that we are a House of honor and the upper House. Even if we were not, the age of Sen. Wetangula should not allow him to continue insulting people left, right and center. Which of our colleagues behaves like they have been electrocuted? Is that a language that must be used against colleagues in this House? Mr. Speaker, Sir, I told you not to lose the House. We are not silent because of the absence of the ability to insult back; it is because we want order in this House.

On a Point of Order, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

What is your Point of Order, Sen. Olekina?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, is it order for the Senate Majority Leader to caution the Speaker all the time? Yes, I would like to request you to rule on the Point of Order, but cautioning the Speaker is not right.

Okay. Order, Honorable Members! Order! Let us allow the Senate Minority Leader to finish so that we can make progress. But use parliamentary language, Sen. Wetangula.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, English is a very rich language and I thank God that I have the privilege of speaking quite a lot of it. I have not said anything un-parliamentary at all---

Order, Sen. Wetangula. Make your point. I think all Members know English.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, away from pending bills, my point has been made. Until and unless there is an intervention, counties are going to grind to a halt. This is what is going to happen: Very soon everybody will be owed money, and I advise them to go to court and enforce their rights. Everybody will have a judgment against the county governments; an order to arrest a County Executive Committee (CEC) Member, county chief officers or even the governor because of all this. We do not want to go that route. We want to see counties properly managed and run. Mr. Speaker, Sir, in terms of prudent management of public finances, I expected my brother, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and Budget, also to lament the collapse of banks such as Imperial Bank, Dubai Bank and Chase Bank. They have gone down with billions in aggregate terms, but small monies of small savers; not The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Order, Senator. When you talk about fraudulent purchase, you are making an allegation.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, this House called the Cabinet Secretary for Health last year and he was unable to answer questions. Why do I call it fraudulent? How can this country lease syringes, plastic gloves and the sort of things that are manufactured in Industrial Area? The whole list is in our records. If that is not fraud, then fraud has lost meaning. If we were leasing sophisticated equipment for cancer and other diseases that are ravaging Kenyans I could understand. However, how can we lease hypodermic needles, scissors and gloves? It is a scandal and yet, each county is contributing to the aggregate of Kshs4.5 billion every financial year, regardless of whether or not the equipment has been delivered, installed and is working. If you go to the villages our people just require a nurse to be present, malaria tablets and to be checked and treated. There are people at 90 years who have never been touched by a doctor; they are treated by nurses and lower level technicians in health facilities. Why are we throwing our money in the hands of business people in the name of helping Kenyans? This is the big question, and if nobody wants to ask this, then we have no business being here. We represent county governments and their interests. It is our duty, regardless of where we sit, to continuously wrestle with the center to get resources to the counties. That is what we are here to do. If you think you are here to defend the indefensible, then you are in the wrong place and business. You are the wrong person in the wrong place! I want to urge this House to scan through this--- The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Order, Members. Sen. Wetangula, withdraw that statement and apologise.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, a boulder is not a stone. I withdraw, but a boulder is not a stone; it is a strong word. I withdraw but want to urge---

And apologise, Sen. Wetangula!

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I withdraw and urge that when a Member is on the Floor---

Order, Sen. Wetangula. Withdraw and apologise.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have withdrawn but do not think it worth an apology.

Sen. Wetangula, withdraw and apologise.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I withdraw the use of the word ‘boulder.’ I apologise for using that word, but would want to say that I will use very strong language if she continues interjecting me.

Sen. (Prof.) Margaret Kamar.

Thank you Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to add my voice to this Motion on the adoption of the 2018 Budget Policy Statement. As the Senate Committee on Education, we went through this document and keenly looked at the sectors that touch on education in the Senate in relation to the areas that are devolved. Two areas are fully devolved in the Constitution of Kenya, 2010. One is what we used to call the village polytechnics, which are now called youth polytechnics or vocational training centres and the other is the Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) centres. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I will go straight to the points we observed and say something about going forward. We did appreciate as a Committee that in this Policy Statement an allocation of Kshs2 billion is being given as conditional grants to the counties in favour of rehabilitation of village polytechnics. The only observation we made out of that is the fact that when we talk of rehabilitation of village polytechnics, it assumes that they are there to begin with. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, Sir. As a Member of the Committee, I request that you give me an extra two minutes because there are several issues I want to bring to the attention of my dear colleagues here. I am glad there are two commissioners here present. These are our representatives in the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC). I urge them to read our report. The Committee on Finance and Budget has looked at the Senate budget. It is apparent that our budget has been reduced by Ksh1.4 billion. They will fail us if we do not get that Ksh1.4 billion because I am aware there is an intention to reduce it even more. I have seen a HANSARD report where the National Assembly Majority Leader says if we get our kitty, they will reduce our budget even further. We intend to sit outside Nairobi although we are severely incapacitated in terms of motor vehicles and many other issues. I urge them to defend this Senate a little more than they are doing now. If they have any problem, they can call us because we are ready to support them. Sen. Mugo raised an issue with regard to borrowing. However, our borrowing is unsustainable. We are tottering around ceilings; it is like a seesaw. The concern is that we are borrowing to refinance. That is the problem that has been pointed out by the Committee on Finance and Budget. At some point, it will become impossible for us to pay because we are doing what they say in English, ‘we are digging holes to fill other holes’. That is the problem we are having about debt sustainability. Sen. Mugo, the point is that before money gets to counties---

On a point of order, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

What is your point of order, Sen. Mugo? The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, addressing the Speaker and the House is not the same as addressing Sen. Mugo. This is the hon. Senator’s second term; he should know that.

Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr, address the House.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I should have said; “point of information”. Hon. Senators, including Sen. Mugo, the point is that by the time we do the Division of Revenue Bill, the first consideration will be public debt. My dear Senators, at some point, even if we pass the County Revenue Allocation, there will be no money because half of it will go to debt. About 66 per cent of Kenyan debt is to China. I call it the road to Shanghai. It is a problem. If we do not talk about it, nobody will talk about it. That has been said and the Committee is here. I want the Senate Majority Leader to listen to this. Under the PFM Act, Section 25(7), the recommendations on this BPS are supposed to be the recommendations of Parliament. In the last Session, all our recommendations were ignored. Allow me to suggest the following: (1) The recommendations that go to the national Treasury from Parliament must include the recommendations of this Committee. If not, we call for a mediation. That is how decisions of Parliament are supposed to go to Treasury. Otherwise, they will continue ignoring us. (2) Possibly amend the Standing Orders. Hon. Senators, these Senators did a good job, except one chairperson who did not appear in terms of analysing the BPS. However, none of them interrogated the respective departments of national Government with regard to matters concerning counties. What Sen. (Prof.) Kamar talked about are just observations that they extracted from the report. Can we amend the Standing Orders so that we summon the concerned persons? Mr. Speaker, Sir, please, give me two more minutes.

Okay, two minutes.

Thank you. We have proposed to amend the BPS on two accounts:- (i) Our health workers in your counties through the Kenya Medical Dentist Practitioners Board (KMDPB) and the nurses have accumulated arears of Ksh11.6billion since 2013. That money has not been included in the BPS. We have proposed to amend this. (ii) The medical equipment sum of Kshs4.5billlion was to run for seven years. However, Treasury amended it to Kshs6.1billion in the 2016/2017 Financial Year. This was not in the County Division of Revenue Bill and a sum of Kshs9.4billion for the following year. We did not know where it came from. We have amended it for the benefit of the counties. Lastly, the Roads Bill is in the National Assembly for debate. They are proposing 20 per cent in the conditional grants. However, we are unable to give our counties 20 per cent to do their roads from Class D downwards because we do not have proper legislative framework. Could you get us that Bill so that we discuss and pass it?. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would like to make a few remarks because of the time. Hon. Senators, if we do not critique the reports brought before us, we might end up handing over our airport to the Chinese because we will not pay our debts. It is imperative that as Senators we play our role here in protecting the interest of county governments. Where it is wrong, we raise concerns. Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are unable to live within our limits in this country because of our desire to borrow. In most counties, businesses are collapsing. The amount of unpaid bills is worrisome. Mr. Speaker, Sir, these counties overestimate or overstate their collections. They either do that intentionally so that they can show that they have a lot in their budget or there is a lot of laziness in terms of collecting revenue from the counties. It is important that when we look at this Budget Policy Statement (BPS), we try and focus on how our county governments can improve on local revenue collections. Earlier on, the nominated Senator alluded to our assets and liabilities. When you look at the Auditor General’s Report or the Controller of Budget’s Report, the amount of assets listed to generate revenue for counties is not what they end up getting. So, I want to reiterate that we must ensure that all the unpaid pending bills have been captured in the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). A lot of businessmen, youth, women and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) who have been given contracts by county governments are not paid; when they go and claim their money, their details are not found in their systems. It is important that when we look at the BPS as Senators, we must interrogate it and ask questions like: How is this going to benefit my constituents? Unless we do that, we are just going to be reduced to voting machines and rubberstamps. So, I want to encourage the Majority Side that even though this Bill has been brought in the last minute and we must vote for it, it is imperative that we become patient by listening and interrogating the document. Otherwise, very soon in our lifetime, this country will be divided and sold to other countries so that we are able to pay our debts. It saddens me when I hear that every year when a child is born; they come in owing this country, the Chinese mostly, over Kshs100, 000.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I need your protection. The consultations are loud. It is interrupting me.

Proceed, hon. Senator. You are on the Floor and your time is almost over.

I agree, my time is almost over, but the Members are busy consulting. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is even over.

I call upon the Mover to reply.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I beg to reply.

The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Hon. Senators, before I put the question on this Motion, I wish to determine that the Motion concerns counties. I now order that the Division Bell be rung for two minutes.

Order! Hon. Senators. I now direct that the doors be closed and the bars be drawn.

Hon. Senators, please, log in. I will give you only 30 seconds to vote. Proceed to vote now.

Hon. Senators, the results of the Division are as follows:

I direct that the Bars be drawn and the doors opened.

Next Order!

Hon. Senators, at the request of the Senate Majority Leader, I wish to defer Order No.8 to Next week.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, allow me to bring to the attention of the House, through you, and seek your direction that we seem to be processing Bills and debating them during First and Second Readings. We then move to Division and then Third Reading without public participation and committee reports. The general procedure is that when a Bill is read, it is automatically committed to a committee that would do two things: First is to conduct public hearing and secondly is to prepare a report that can help Members in debating the Bills in a more informed manner. By going to Division without going through the stages, we may be missing out some technical support from the committees and any other members of the public that can enrich the laws that we pass.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I agree with the Senate Minority Leader. Perhaps, this is something that we ought to discuss in the Senate Business Committee (SBC). Although it is possible that we are trying to generate work on the Floor of the House, it is important that we do not ignore the public. When Bills are completed and before Division and the Mover being called to reply, you should either give a committee a week or less to give a report, so that when the Mover is making their reply, they can reply to the contributions of the Senators and those who come to give their views. I thank you. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, there are few instances that I agree with the Senate Minority Leader in his language and everything. As you may be aware, I have been requesting your Office to postpone my Bill because of the interest it has generated for the committee to first complete public participation so that by the time we come to debate, we have the report. It is important Bills be quickly committed to committees after First Readings. Clerks assisting committees must always organise for the meetings but also it is the proactive responsibility of Chairs of committees to understand the importance of public participation as an informing tool for this House to carry out certain responsibilities. Sometimes I bring Bills here as the Senate Majority Leader with all honesty that I have not had a chance and I am not an expert in the area. A good example is the Bill on irrigation that we had here. We were waiting for the report of the committee to inform this House some of the things we need to amend at the Committee Stage. It becomes more useful if the issues come up at the Committee Stage, so that during the debating, we incorporate them. I think that is a practice that you as the Chair of the SBC should adopt. Before any business is enlisted, one of the things that we must confirm is whether a committee completed its process for public participation.

It is so directed. That is a constitutional requirement and all that should take place so that we minimise a lot of the exchanges that come on the Floor of the House. They should have been dealt with at the committee level and other stages. Next Order!

Sen. Pareno, you still have 15 minutes.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am happy to proceed from where I left yesterday since I was stopped because of time. As I said yesterday in my contribution, slum upgrading should lead to elimination of slums with a holistic approach. As I indicated, it will not be easy for us to have a policy about housing without talking about putting food on the table for those who will be relocated to better housing. It is not just about housing but you also need to consider things like employment, clothing and other basic needs of a human being before you talk to people about The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity to add my voice in support of the Sessional Paper No. 2 of 2016 on the National Slum Upgrading and Prevention Policy. Slums have become an eyesore because of lack of planning and movement of people into cities. I support this policy because of the outline and the fact that it is not only going to address the issue of removing the slums but also creating a housing system The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

(Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki): Order, Sen. (Prof.) Kamar! These are not Committee proceedings.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I apologise.

(Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki): Proceed.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have seen a slum grow in Eldoret and that is why I am very passionate about this topic. I saw a tiny slum grow when I was a Member of Parliament in the year 2008. I moved in and started a nursery school, because the children had nowhere to go and learn. But c hangaa and busaa were being brewed around the children. We tried to eliminate it, but because we were creating facilities, we seemed to be attracting more people. Eventually, we had to go to the SOS Children’s Home to look for space for these children to be moved. That was the only way we managed to reduce the slum. Further, we had to create other amenities for the slum while ensuring that the children are out of the place. I am saying this passionately because I saw it grow and I saw people migrate into town. Whenever they came to town, they never moved to any other place; they instead moved to where they had seen others build the structures. Therefore, it is very easy to attract a huge population and create a slum. So, let us not talk about slum elimination and at the same time encourage the street children to The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

(Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki): Very well; thank you. Proceed, Sen. Cheruiyot.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me this chance. From the very onset, I want to state that I support the Motion on the Adoption of Sessional Paper No. 2 of 2016 titled‘ The National Slum Upgrading and Prevention Policy’. This is a very important and well thought out document although, in my opinion, it is coming out quite late in the building of our nation. These are things that we should have done a long time ago, the minute we realized that our capital city was getting overcrowded. This should have been done when people moved out of the rural settings, set foot in this city and realized that it was not all rosy as they may have thought. As the Government, such policies should have been set out early. If that had been done, we would have prevented many of the things that we face as a city. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the unfortunate thing is that these challenges are not only being experienced in Nairobi, but in almost all of our 47 counties. If you go through most of our county headquarters, without fail the hallmark of what defines the county headquarters is the presence of a slum; which is quite unfortunate. It is important that the Government has thought through and come up with this Sessional Paper and we should support it. But we should support it with the hope that they have put prudent thought to it and that they have the will and the intention to push through this information that they have set out in this Sessional Paper. They should ensure, first of all, that we reverse the ills and the difficulties that we continue to experience in most of our cities. Secondly, we should prevent a recurrence of the same. The most unfortunate thing about us and the people who, at many times are in positions of leadership and management of different organisations and even cities like our own, is that they do not seem to learn from history. When Nairobi was being set up, there was good thought that was put to it by the initial batch of city planners. These planners even considered that in any growing developing country like Kenya, you will have various strata of society; the well to do and the not so well to do. It is in that context that we had the initial Nairobi being set up with places where the extremely wealthy could live and estates where the not so well to do members of our society could find a decent home, connected to clean piped water and good social amenities. However, what happened over time is regrettable because we did not match the initial intention, realizing that we had a growing population. We have let people to crowd in these settlements. The nature of human beings is such that when there is struggle for natural resources, then humanity and consideration of other basic facilities that people are supposed to share becomes secondary. People then begin to adapt to the hard life. It is unfortunate that we have the kind of situation that we find ourselves in. Urban poverty is one of the most dehumanising things that exist in the 21st Century. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

(Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki): Sen. Cheruiyot, congratulations for being freshly elected as a commissioner of the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) of the Republic of Kenya. I also congratulate Sen. Khaniri and Sen. Beth Mugo in their absence. P ongezi.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me an opportunity to add my voice to this debate on adoption of Sessional Paper No.2 of 2016 on the National Slum Upgrading and Prevention Policy. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

(Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki): Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I think some people have stolen my points. However, I support the Sessional Paper. Let me start by asking this august House to try and change the word “slum”. The word “slum” is insensitive to me, as far as I am concerned. I happen to have worked at a water company and whenever we talked about giving water to the slums and going to the slum area to see how they are getting water, it created a lot of uneasiness. We then adopted the term; “informal settlement”. If we were to adopt a better word for that matter, I am almost sure we will also expand the horizons of the intended purpose of this Sessional Paper. I have in mind that the Government is constructing infrastructure. If we look at the so called Super Highway, as you drive from Nairobi to Thika, ---

(Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki): Order, Senator. What do you mean by “the so called Super Highway”?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is called a Super Highway but somebody from a developed world told us that it is not a Super Highway. Super highways have more lanes. If you drive along the Thika Super Highway, I think we did a good job but we forgot that infrastructure is not just a road but it includes offering other services like The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

(Sen. (Prof.) Kindiki): Thank you, Sen. Kibiru. The remarks are many. Nevertheless, they are well put. Proceed, Sen. (Prof.) Samson Ongeri. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to contribute to this rather belated Motion for the adoption of Sessional Paper No. 2 of 2016. I happened to be Kenya’s Ambassador to the UN-Habitat and this Sessional Paper was meant to be in place to input to the new urban agenda which was with the world body organisation being held in Quito in October 2016. Therefore, this House ought to input in this slum upgrading and informal settlement of this county with the sole purpose of creating the new urban agenda and the new paradigm shift where the resources of this nation and the entire global system will contribute towards slum upgrading. A few statistics might help this House to understand what this slum upgrading is all about. When you take into consideration the percentage and the population of people living in slums in our cities, towns and urban areas, it is almost 5.3 million Kenyans. There is no county which is exempted from slums. Even some of the urban centres within the sub counties may also be having slums. If we embark on improving the livelihoods of 5.3 million Kenyans by 2020, then we need to put into place all the aspects of slum upgrading policies.

Unfortunately, there was a memorandum signed between the Kenyan Government and the UN-Habitat to deal with this problem. I happen to know that at the end of the new urban agenda which was passed in Quito in Ecuador in 2016, subsequently, the General Assembly was seized with the matter. For now, this has become a global policy. What does the new agenda look like? What does it mean in this country, Kenya? What are the dimensions of this new global agenda or what does it entail? One of the shocking figures is that, the growth and development of new slums is at the rate of 4.4 per cent. If we are not careful as a country, we will turn the entire nation into a slum- dwelling land and region. Thirdly, one should understand that in order to stem off the rural-urban migration, we must be in a position to set up goods and services that will attract investors to these rather informal settlements. What does it entail? The communities must be mobilised. You cannot be talking of settling the informal settlements without mobilisation of the community. You must have very clear and adequate spatial planning for any urban centre, town or city. This has double effects. When you have clear and adequate spatial planning and not the kind of planning we have today which is haphazard, inefficient and cannot attract anything, then you have a gold mine in that kind of planning. If you look at the characteristics of a town these days, people are running in for the plots in the frontline. They will have no regards with the plots which are in the second or third line. I am hoping that our Konza Techno City will take advantage of the new urban agenda in planning. I took the trouble, some two months ago, to go to Konza. I do not know where it belongs; whether it is in Machakos County or Makueni County where Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. comes from, but I believe they are all integrated counties. In The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Mr. Temporary speaker, Sir, I rise to support the National Slum Upgrading and Prevention Policy, 2016. I have a few points. First, I agree with my colleagues who say that this is late, but welcome. The unfortunate bit is that all slums, particularly in Nairobi, happen to be next to very opulent neighbourhoods. Githogoro slum is next to Runda, Kibera slum is next to Lang’ata, Mathare is next to Pangani and others; I cannot remember all of them. The people who live in slums serve the people who live in upmarket areas or what we call the urban suburbs. The ones in Runda and Lavington are leafy suburbs. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is a question of bad planning. History has caught up with us and the issue of slums has become a national agenda when it should not be. Now that we have done so, we can prevent it. When you drive along the bypass towards Kikuyu Town, you will see good looking buildings of up to five to six floors. I wonder whether we are helping these poor Kenyans by creating such elaborate infrastructure. What they need is just nice looking accommodation, not skyscrapers. This is because it creates a cost in terms of sanitation and cleaning. I have seen this in Malaysia and Mumbai. If you visit the high-rise buildings in Kibera, they are most likely in such disturbing state in terms of cleanliness. This is because we have not upgraded the incomes of the people living there; we have only upgraded where they sleep. They do not have money to cater for cleaning of common areas. So, we are actually robbing Peter to pay Paul. In countries with huge urban populations like Brazil, they have built brick houses and in so doing upgraded the slums. They have made them live in a much better state without necessarily increasing their cost. If you go to Kibera, you will be surprised that it has more water than most estates in Nairobi because of what they call the ‘spaghetti’ connections. Kibera has got more connections to power than most other living quarters because, for some reason, they find a way of connecting to these facilities. They are not The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Sen. Okong’o Omogeni. He is not in. Let us have Sen. Naomi Waqo.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. He is just reminding me of the queue. That is true with the queue. Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this important Motion on the Slum Upgrading and Prevention Policy. I came to Nairobi a few years ago. After a few months, because of the Ministry I was involved in, I visited Kibera Slum which is highly populated. It took me one whole week to recover from what I saw. I sympathised with the people who were there. I concluded that it is better for one to be in a village like where I come from than to be in Kibera Slum or any other slum in the city. The right to shelter is a just constitutional right. For that matter, all Kenyans are supposed to be sheltered and live in a dignified way. Kibera is one of the biggest slums in Africa with close to a million people. What you see in that slum or any other slum, is pathetic. The young girls and school going children are unable to continue with their education. The population is high. There are no facilities. This affects them their entire lives. As I worked in church, I also realized that young girls are at risk because they are exposed to a lot of danger. Funny things happen there like young girls being exposed to prostitution. A disease like HIV-AIDS is rampant there. A child takes care of a mother who is HIV positive. In the end, they all get infected. This is something that Kenyans should take seriously. The Sessional Paper is now before this House, we should all support it so that transformation in the slum areas can take place as soon as possible and ensure that our people living in the slums live well like other Kenyans. As I went through this policy paper, I realized that its objective is to promote, secure and protect dignified lives and livelihood of the poor and the people living in the slums. It is the duty of the State and us, as leaders, to protect the lives of our people and also provide for their basic needs in terms of education, health and shelter. When you look at the many slums in our city, you will appreciate the poverty level that we are in. The number of slums in the city exposes the other side of our country. My understanding is that most of the people who live there have their rural homes, but prefer the city because of the work they do. That means that they need economic empowerment. If we upgrade the slums by building nice apartments, the best thing they can do, as they have done in the past, is to lease them out. To prevent people from moving to other places to start slums, the Government should ensure that the apartments in the upgraded slums are affordable. It should plan well so that the people who were in the slums are the first beneficiaries. More often when such projects are done, it is people like you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, and me who invest in them and end up leasing the houses. Therefore, protection of the poor man’s welfare is paramount. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Sen. Ledama Olekina, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I arise to make my contribution to this Policy Paper on the Slum Upgrading and Prevention Policy. The reason why we are here is to support devolution. I have looked at the overall policy objective of this Sessional paper. I support it. However, there are questions that we ought to be asking ourselves on why we have these problems. I would also argue that this Sessional Paper No. 2 of 2016 is quite old. We may be debating it now for various reasons, but the best way to stop the influx of rural-urban migration is by fighting for the increase of the allocation that our counties receive so that we are able to stop a lot of people migrating to the city. With the gap between the rich and the poor in this country widening on a daily basis, there is no way we are going to stop people from boarding buses with one-way tickets coming to settle in Nairobi. Slums are sprouting on a daily basis. Even if it were me, I would ask myself the same question of why there is free land somewhere yet I have nowhere to live. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the thing that we ought to be talking about is, how do we stop the rural-urban migration? Many people come to the city believing that, that is where they will get jobs to support their people in the rural areas. The reason why we fought so hard for a Devolved Government System was so that we are able to curb the growth of slums in this country. One of the things that we might do in line with this Policy Paper is to try and promote subsidised housing and giving tax incentives that can help us, as a country, to reach the overall objective of this paper. In the United States of America (USA) where I lived, there were slums but they had a much better name and called them “projects”. The government there tends to recognise the needs of poor people to have better housing. If this policy is not implemented, it will be a big waste and an insult to the poor people. The reason why this policy paper was thought out in the first place was to give poor people who cannot afford to pay high rents in Nairobi or stay at home without a job a way for them to have a good life. In this country, everyone wants to come to Nairobi. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, just for record, I also want to first congratulate our two able Senators; Sen. Cheruiyot and Sen. Khaniri who were sworn in today as commissioners of the Parliamentary Service Commission. I also want to be on record supporting this Sessional Paper No.2 of 2016 on the National Slum Upgrading and Prevention Policy. The problem of slums has largely been caused by our successive governments. Though we want to lay the blame of the uprising of slums on people who migrate from rural areas to urban centres, I put the blame squarely on the doors of our successive governments. The first breeding ground of upcoming of slums is when we as a government or a country fail to have proper planning. If one was to visit Kibera, you would realise that the people who live there have never known what it means to have a government that can provide infrastructure for its own citizens. Those people do not even know that in this city we have firefighting machines because there are no roads. If there is a fire breakout, firefighting vehicles cannot drive through to the deep part of Kibera because there are no proper roads. The people in Kibera have never known what it means to have street lights. You will be shocked that the people of Kibera have never known what it means to have sewer connection. They miss what I would call basic fundamental human rights. As a people, we have treated people who live in slums in the most inhumane manner. I want to submit that the best way to move forward as we discuss the National Slum Upgrading and Prevention Policy is for the government to recognise that those who are less endowed in society are also human beings and they have a right to enjoy some basic human rights from their own government. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as we discuss the Sessional Paper No. 2 of 2016 on the National Slum Upgrading and Prevention Policy, the Government must go back to the drawing board and ask itself how they are going to ensure that people who live in slums can also be recognised as Kenyans. They deserve good access to essential services like infrastructure; roads running through the slums, street lights, connection of sewer and clean tap water. If we deal with these issues, then we can succeed towards the first essential step of upgrading those slums. Secondly, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we cannot lay a lot of emphasis on wanting to concentrate on dealing with slums in the City of Nairobi and forget about the various county headquarters. With this new concept of county governments, there are people in the rural areas who get attracted to settling in the headquarters of various county governments. So, if we do not put a lot of emphasis and supervision on our county governments to check new settlements, we would be trying to come up with a solution in Nairobi but also creating another problem in our county headquarters. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me the opportunity to add my voice to this important policy. From the outset, I would like to state that this is a timely policy because it has come at a time when one of our Government agendas is setting up low cost housing. It has also come at a time when we are concentrating on devolution. Therefore, if this policy is going to be implemented, then it will help our counties to plan well. This policy is also timely because planning has been devolved to our counties. Therefore, this is a policy that we require at this particular time when we are moving towards county development. When you visit various places in this country today, you will realize that we are not talking about slums alone, but also about poor commercial buildings. There is another phenomenon that is coming up of poor commercial buildings called kiosks. These container houses are being erected everywhere around our urban centres. When you visit our urban areas today, everyone is erecting a container along the road on top of sewer lines. People are just building informal shelters to house their businesses or just to use it as a house. Therefore, planning is what we generally need. I do not think that we need a policy framework in this country. What we need is serious implementation and follow-up of these very nice programmes that we have. We have already put in place the Physical Planning Bill, which I remember we passed in the 11th Parliament. We also already have several Sessional Papers on slums upgrading. We even have the Physical Planning Act, which spells out many issues on slum upgrading. Therefore, what we are lacking as a country is the implementation by our ministries of these blueprints that we came up with. Looking at this policy or Sessional Paper, I see a very nice policy framework on the issue of socio-economic matrix on security and delivery of services in these slums. However, what we need to think of is the issue of possibly going into partnership so as to come up with low-cost housing for our poor population. This is because the reasons slums sprout up in our urban centres are; many low income earners, lack of employment and big populations in our cities. Therefore, I think it will be a good idea to think of how to empower our people for them to pay for decent houses. The country can also partner with private organisations in offering low-cost housing to our population. By doing this, it will go a long way in eradicating unplanned informal settlements that we see in our country. The other thing that we also need to look into is the issue of planning and zoning in our counties. We need to specify the areas where we should build low-cost housing units and put up commercial buildings and industries. If we do not zone and plan our counties, we shall have a similar situation to what we have in Nairobi where slums are built next to high-rise houses. What we see in our counties today is a mess. People are building homes next to industries and even within the town centres. You will get all sorts of houses coming up in our towns without planning and basic services like water, electricity and proper sewerage. Therefore, if we can encourage and promote proper planning and management of our lands in our counties, we shall prevent slums coming up. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate.

Thank you, hon. Senators. Since there are no more requests, I, therefore, defer the Motion to tomorrow afternoon, so that the Mover can reply.

I will also defer Orders No. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.