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{
"id": 1009535,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1009535/?format=api",
"text_counter": 232,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kilifi North, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Owen Baya",
"speaker": {
"id": 13373,
"legal_name": "Owen Yaa Baya",
"slug": "owen-yaa-baya"
},
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. My name is Baya with a ‘B’, not Mbaya which belongs to Meru. It is Baya which belongs to the Giriama. At the outset, I want to say that disaster preparedness is very important. I want to thank Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah for this Bill. We fail mostly because we do not prepare for disasters. Disasters will come, but what about preparedness? I hope this Bill will take care of this as we move to the Committee of the whole House, where we will deeply look into preparedness. I want to say this. Last Friday, I attended a funeral in Mpeketoni in Lamu County. A young woman by the name Makamau, 14 years of age, who was the age of my daughter, had drowned in the sea. I looked at the circumstances which led to her death. When the eulogy was read, it said that an uncle, the brother to the father, also drowned at the same place sometime ago. Many other people in Lamu, have continued to drown in that area, the Amu Beach, even when the government is actually aware that this is a dangerous place. We lost a young man that everybody eulogised as a potential, but his life was lost in the sea. If you come to my constituency in Kilifi, there is a place where every year, when freshers come to Pwani University, there will be about three people who will drown in the sea. At the place where everybody else knows is dangerous nobody in Government takes care of a disaster that is imminent. Every year people go to the sea. When you follow it up, at the county government level, they say that is not their function. The national Government also says it is also not their function. I remember at the funeral in Lamu, there was a game of ping pong between the county government of Lamu and the national Government. I hope that this Bill by Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah will prevent that. Many people get lost in the sea because we do not have this Authority. What the people of Kilifi and the people of Lamu will require is a few officers to stand at that place or put sign posts to say: “Please do not go to this place.” They say in Kiswahili: “N imlango wa bahari”, so the water in those two places are dangerous. They want some people to be there who will dive and save lives. They want divers there, so that when they see a child having problems, they can dive in and save a life. They want some boats there to go on rescue missions. On the day when Makamau drowned in Lamu, it took an hour before a boat came from Lamu Town, which is several kilometres from that place. This is the case and yet Government authorities know that is a dangerous place, but nothing happens. Today, our roads are a source of disaster. Recently we saw what happened in Kilifi where there was a pile up of several cars, at a place where everybody knows is a blind spot that lives are likely to be lost. Nobody is taking the cue to know that we need to prevent disasters. These are the simple things that made three lives get lost. The lives of Kenyans are getting lost on the roads. We have had disasters in this country because buildings have collapsed. We need to ensure that we have an authority that can manage and prevent disasters. That way, we will save the lives of many Kenyans whose lives are snuffed out, not because of anything else, but because of irresponsibility and lack of structures. I thank Hon. Ichung’wah for this Bill. As we move to the Committee of the whole House on this Bill we will ensure that Kenyans lives are spared of disasters, by ensuring that we have prepared for them and we can prevent disasters. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}