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{
    "id": 1191102,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1191102/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 4091,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Millie Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I want to agree with my sister the Deputy Speaker, especially with her sentiments on harmful effects of pesticides. If it was not for the fact that she is bereaved, I would have taken her on a different target. Since she is bereaved and is my good friend, I will be kind to her. I will limit the things I had intended to say. But I just want to say so that I do not go back and forth on many of these issues. For the longest time, we have been very careless in the way we expose our citizens to many hazardous items like pesticides in this country, to the situation where we are now seeing fish dying in Lake Victoria. It could also be from harmful industrial waste, and we do not take that seriously. It is a no wonder that we have many cases of cancer; and it is not just in Kirinyaga. If you look at a place like my constituency when I have a public gathering, there will always be a person coming to you with a case of cancer - cervical cancer and breast cancer. The worst was actually during the campaigns. I think I have even shared it on the Floor of the House. There is this woman whom the public asked me to support but because the woman did not think I took the issue seriously, she came and undressed before the public so that I could see how bad it was. I have never seen such a breast in my life. Even access to basic care when you have cases of cancer like that is difficult and yet, many of them are preventable. When you look at countries like the USA and other developed countries, you will hear people saying: “My mother died very young”. “My father died very young”. How old? At 80 years and yet, life expectancy in my constituency was, until recently, 37 years in this age and time. Again, I am saying that many of those things are very preventable. So, I agree with my sister that we need to amend the law to consider some of those harmful effects. I also want to say that I do not agree that we should actually remove the boards. That is because it is not their fault. If you look at some of the things that are being said, there is a problem in the law. But there is also lack of a coherent government policy. When you actually look at it, I know that some of us have been a little kind because we are saying that the Government is in transition. It is not correct to hear a person say that the Cabinet has not sat and yet, we have already approved Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). What is the impact of GMOs, for instance, in our own being? It could probably be the same thing. Have we looked at it? So, we need not be too excited as Government. We also need to have coherent and very proper policy processes so that we move away from roadside declarations when we are dealing with serious issues. Ordinarily, the law should follow policy. What we have been doing is that policy now follows the law. We need to be clear what the Government policy is on some of those issues. Hon. Temporary Speaker, with those few remarks, because I can see my time is up, I wish to support the sentiments and indicate that I am a passionate protector of plants. I did Plant Genetic Resources Intellectual Property Rights as part of my thesis for my master’s degree at the University of Nairobi. Thank you. I support. Of course, with a rider on the removal of the board."
}