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{
    "id": 1011319,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1011319/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 325,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Wilberforce Oundo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13331,
        "legal_name": "Wilberforce Ojiambo Oundo",
        "slug": "wilberforce-ojiambo-oundo-2"
    },
    "content": "For example, the perennial flooding in Budalangi and part of my constituency Funyula, Nyando and perennial landslides in Mt. Kenya region. These are a testimony of a country that fails to predict and see what will happen in the near future. In many developed countries for example, the United States of America (USA), they have a very clear disaster warning system which this country has failed to embrace. In many cases, both the national and county governments fail to invest in local radios that are able to predict or warn of impending disasters. For example, the Bulala FM station in Budalangi that provides warning signs about the impending flooding is not adequately funded. We do hope that the formation of the Disaster Management Authority will accord this kind of local mechanism opportunity to provide enough linkage or enough adverse warnings to avoid human loss and that of property. We must laud the Kenya Red Cross Society of Kenya for the wonderful job it has always done whenever there is a disaster. We must also laud the Disaster Management Unit that His Excellency the President presided over and which is hosted in the Office of the President and the National Emergence Response plan that were inaugurated in 2014 to create some semblance of order and organisation in the management of disasters in this country. The Bill provides a number of functions for the authority. My main point of concern is those functions are assigned to the county governments. Under the Fourth Schedule, Part 2, function No. 12 is about fire and disaster management. We are eight years into devolution, and I can say without an iota of doubt, using Busia County as a reference, we have no disaster management framework. We have no functioning firefighting system. I truly wonder what magic the authority will use to ensure that the county governments have adequate mechanisms, adequate infrastructure and adequate funding to provide sufficient capacity to manage disasters in this country. The same Fourth Schedule in Part 1, among the functions assigned to the National Government are disaster management. We do hope the Government will make proposals to provide adequate funding to ensure that the functions listed under Clause 5 of the Bill are adequately and comprehensively executed by the authority. With those few remarks, I support the Bill."
}