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"id": 1103950,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1103950/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Were",
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"id": 13183,
"legal_name": "Petronila Were Lokorio",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as I had indicated earlier on, I will go through the introduction, again. Welcome Temporary Speaker, Sen. Kinyua. This Disaster Risk Management Bill seeks to do a number of things. I will point out three that are crucial to me. First of all, this Bill seeks to set up a Disaster Risk Management Fund (DRMF). This is important because, then, we are sure there is always a kitty to deal with issues of disaster. For example, when Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) hit us, we had to set up quickly a national COVID-19 Fund to fundraise money to deal with the effects of COVID-19. If there was money ready in place, then we would be able to handle disasters that strike us; not just pandemics or diseases, but things like floods, bomb blasts when they hit us, earthquakes and landslides that are very common in the Rift Valley and Mt. Kenya area, for example. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there will be a fund set up ready and money always put into it to deal with these issues. This money can also be used to provide social safety networks or initiatives to cushion Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), for example, the vulnerable groups of society. This is the one attractive thing about this Disaster Risk Management Bill. This Bill, therefore, sets up a framework for the coordination of disaster risk management activities. The second thing that it does is that it sets up the National Disaster Risk Management Authority (NDRMA) that is at the national level. Since we have the reality of devolution that is never going away, it has also set up the County Disaster Risk Management Committees (CDRMC). These authorities will be run by boards, and therefore, they are accountable. Most importantly, they will be the ones that will seek to set up or develop a disaster risk management strategy or plan. This is so that when there is a problem or disaster, there is a plan or strategy in place ready to implement or deal with that disaster. This is so that people are not grappling in the dark, or it is not just left to the military. For example, when there was a bomb blast in 1998, and most of the people here were born, it is the military that saved the day. From their training, they have developed strategies to deal with disasters. I remember the late Agoyi - God rest his soul in peace - who passed on last month. He led the management of that disaster of 1998. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, once we have an authority in place that sets up a strategy and plan that already envisages a disaster and how it will be dealt with, then, we are able to manage some of these issues when they happen. Even the ones that come occasionally like landslides, as it happened in Solai when the dam collapsed and floods that happen frequently in areas in Nyanza and Western."
}