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{
"id": 1009533,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1009533/?format=api",
"text_counter": 230,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nyando, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Jared Okelo",
"speaker": {
"id": 13457,
"legal_name": "Jared Odoyo Okelo",
"slug": "jared-odoyo-okelo-2"
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"content": " Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. On the same breath, I thank my brother, Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah, for coming up with the National Disaster Management Authority Bill. He understands we are very good friends and the rest is history. I have read the Bill keenly, the opening, the body and the ending. It is about mitigation and responsiveness. It is true that disasters are as old as humankind. For us who read the Bible where I derive my discipline, unlike some of us here, disasters have always been there. Read of the Noah’s Ark and what orchestrated the setting up of the ark. I am only perturbed to the extent that each time there are fire outbreaks, for instance in the United States of America or Australia, you see big planes dropping water from the skies to address the calamity. In Kenya, just two weeks ago, we had a disaster at Tsavo East National Park where fires engulfed the entire park. We could literally see people holding twigs to fight fires. It took a long time for the fires to go off. So, we need better responses when it comes to the disasters that we have. I come from Nyando Constituency, which I represent. Even now as we speak, Lake Victoria is bulging out and reclaiming its former lands. Ten of my schools are submerged in water. They are marooned. Even though schools have reopened, those 10 schools are still closed today. The mitigating interventions from the Government have not been forthcoming. So, there has been a proposal to merge those schools with others on higher grounds and students have to trek long distances to access education, which is a human right as is enshrined in our Constitution. There has been a proposal to merge these schools with those on higher grounds and students have to trek long distances to access education, which is a human right as enshrined in our Constitution. So, I believe, this authority which is yet to be established courtesy of this Bill, will address some of these gaps we have periodically experienced within this nation. When fires engulf places like Tsavo East, flora and fauna are subjected to destruction. This is a country that heavily rely on tourism as its number two income earner for our revenues. Therefore, that means, if this continues, then our country will have a dead tourism sector and that portend a great danger to the people of this great nation. The people who are employed in the tourism sector cannot be properly underscored. Therefore, we really need this body like yesterday, to help us address some of these issues. Drawing a tangent from your statement, all these Members of Parliament have become disaster managers. Even roles that are meant to be played by the county governments, it is the Members of Parliament who are the first port of call during such disasters. We do not have answers because we do not have provisions for handling disasters in our Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) kitty, if that is anything to go by. So, we contend with so much and we are judged so harshly at the end of the day. I think we really need an authority which will be responsible for emerging disasters. Of course, we give heko to Red Cross that has done a splendid job each time there is a disaster in this country. However, this is not a Government entity, it is a private entity. So, you have a private entity coming in to rescue the citizens of this country, yet our taxes do not go to Red Cross. Therefore, just like my brother Kimani Ichung’wah has said, this Authority will adequately address the issues that bedevil the disasters in this country. For that, I support and I thank you."
}