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{
    "id": 1200202,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1200202/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 148,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tarbaj, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Hussein Abdi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Deputy Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to address this House. I come from Tarbaj Constituency, which is within Wajir County that boarders Mandera and Somalia on the eastern side. I would like to congratulate the Speaker and yourself for being elected to preside over the business of this House. I thank the people of Tarbaj Constituency and all who supported me. They sent me here to represent them and present their issues to the nation. I do not want to forget those who were supporting the other contestants as now I represent them all. Hon. Deputy Speaker, Tarbaj Constituency has a lot of challenges, but the greatest challenge currently is drought. My constituents are losing their livestock and some are on the verge of losing their lives because of lack of water. Our people cannot do their work. They are suffering due to the vagaries of nature. They do not have water. They call me to supply them with water, which I cannot. Currently, Tarbaj Constituency is suffering bad drought. I know efforts are being done by the Government headed by our President, Dr. William Ruto, and his deputy. They are putting in some effort, but that is not enough. I expect that allocation of money for rigs and a number of dams will be done in the coming budget so that, for once, we can address the issue of water in my constituency. This is one thing that has always been coming back. I hope in this term, we will find a solution for this. I wish to engage Members of the specific committees who are going to deal with sectoral areas that are concerned with water. We will give a lot of preference to this issue this time, so that such challenges can be addressed. Another thing that is a result of that situation is unemployment. There is unemployment in my constituency because people depend on livestock which is now decimated due to drought. We are not connected to the national grid, which have enhanced start-ups of factories and industries. We are also experiencing the least connectivity index in terms of roads. This situation has created an environment where jobs are not being created and quite a number of my people are not employed. During this term, I expect that the road from Modogashe to Mandera will be tarmacked so that business can be enhanced, and the national grid is connected from Garissa to Mandera, so that industries can be set up by private citizens and jobs creation rejuvenated. This is a bother to my people and I hope it will be addressed. Another thing that my constituency experiences is environmental problems. This is an era where climate change is a debate in the whole world. My constituency, being a dry constituency that does not have electricity connectivity, and people depend largely on the few shrubs that exist for fire and energy, are forced to collect firewood from wherever they find. That exacerbates the drought situation in my area. I hope with the focus in electricity connectivity, special consideration will be given to certain companies to introduce the usage of gas. In my constituency, I want to allocate some little money to some people who will provide gas energy and teach my people how to use it so that they can lessen the use of firewood. I hope the Ministry concerned will also join me in encouraging the people and extend that service to my constituency so that pressure on firewood is lessened. I also want the Ministry of Environment and other ministries concerned, especially the Ministry of Energy, to help me recruit a number of young men as environmental guards so that they can be diverted from collecting firewood or cutting the few trees that we have to being meaningfully engaged. These are some of the issues. Another issue that is of concern to my constituency is the education sector. As they say, if you want to interfere with the progress of a society, play around with education. You will find schools with close to 700 students with only one or two teachers in my constituency. That is widespread in the northern area. I know in the last term, a number of Members of Parliament had a number of initiatives to improve that by taking up a proposal with the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC), but that has been quashed and kept aside. Quite a number of teachers are recruited from across the country, but when they get there, and are accepted as teachers, they give excuses of the place being inhospitable because of insecurity and such things. Those are The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}