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{
    "id": 1214074,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1214074/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 119,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Garissa Township, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Dekow Mohamed",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I represent a constituency which is cosmopolitan in nature. While I was campaigning, I had the opportunity to meet 43 communities in Kenya who reside, do businesses, and look for their livelihoods within my constituency which is partly urban and rural. Thirty or 40 per cent of my constituency is rural and the other 70 per cent is urban. Having said that, I want to first of all thank the people of Garissa Township for giving me this honour to stand in this House to represent them as their Member of Parliament. Let me thank my predecessor, Hon. Duale, who is the Cabinet Secretary for Defence, for his immense contribution in terms of development and leadership in Garissa Township Constituency. Many of my colleagues ask me if I will fit in his shoes. As you all know very well when Hon. Duale was a Member of Parliament, he was a staunch leader and great debater in this House. At the constituency level, he established a good foundation for me to build on as the next Member of Parliament. I thank everyone who contributed to my win. He also supported me and invested a lot both emotionally and used his resources to ensure I got elected to this House. As a constituency, we face many challenges which during my term as a Member of Parliament, I will give priority. A major challenge which has affected us is drought although a huge section of my constituency is urban. We depend on livestock business as an economic enabler. The ravaging drought has not only affected my constituency but also 24 pastoralist communities or counties. This has brought many challenges and one we have noticed is climate change refugees. These are people in my constituency or neighbouring constituencies who have lost their livelihoods and have been forced to move to Garissa with nothing. They are being taken care of by donor agencies and the Government of Kenya. This means they have settled on land which eventually will bring conflict among the communities living in my constituency. Another problem we are facing as a result of drought is parents have lost their livelihoods, and so they cannot fend for their families or take their children to school. This means as a Member of Parliament, I have to take care of the 100 per cent transition to secondary schools and university using the NG-CDF fund I have been allocated. This is a big challenge for me. As a Member of Parliament, I also need to address issues of education in my constituency. We have an exodus of teachers but fortunately yesterday in this House, we were debating the issue of junior secondary schools and we almost have 100 per cent transition. The biggest problem we have is allocation of teachers by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). Out of the 30,000 teachers recruited this year, we managed to only get 15. We already had a shortfall in my constituency and we need affirmative action in this area. Another situation we are facing is with regard to civil documents like passports and identity (ID) cards. In my constituency when young people want to get IDs, they undergo a 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."
}