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{
    "id": 1397165,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1397165/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 522,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Tigania West, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) John K. Mutunga",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to support this Bill. The Bill was once brought to this House and it disappeared for very many years. I can remember the last time we were discussing a legislation on disaster management was in 2007. It always comes and goes. I hope this time round it will see the light of day and become law because Kenya needs a law on disaster risk management. Hon. Temporary Speaker, disasters are majorly categorised into two types. Natural disasters, which occur whether we want or not due to climate change and other factors. The other category is technological disasters, which are as a result of man’s influence. Basically, disasters are enhanced emergencies which occur incidentally and have negative connotation and orientation. I note that the Bill carefully recognises that disasters are those emergencies which are beyond the capacity of a given jurisdiction to contain. If an occurrence is within the capacity of a jurisdiction, or an entity or organisation to contain, it is an emergency. It becomes a disaster the moment it goes beyond that particular jurisdiction. A country, considered as jurisdiction in this case, would also have a disaster. The Government can call upon the international community to intervene. That is why the disaster declaration process is captured in this Bill in very good order. Disaster risk management has to do with containment of risks. I want to take a minute to allude to what Hon. Oundo was talking about. The professor was saying that there is a lot of negativity in the Bill. We grade disasters based on the credible worst scenario, which is considered to be the best to respond to. Therefore, a disaster cannot really be positive because we have to deal with bad situations. Disasters are basically about natural or technological occurrences that are bad in terms of the causative agents, which we call hazards. Hon. Temporary Speaker, there are four key principles captured in this Bill, and we need to dwell on them. The Bill seeks to have the functions of the relevant agencies discharged in a co-ordinated manner. During disaster, there is no time to do things properly. It is important for us to be prepared so that we can better coordinate and collaborate. In collaboration, disaster management has four factors. One is trying to make sure that disasters do not occur at all, which is mitigation. This is about building the capacity of a country to reduce the possibilities of disasters occurring, or doing anything possible to minimise the disasters themselves. Hazards cause disasters. So, we need to identify and interrogate in order to understand them. We also need to do hazard analysis to know what kind of risks they pose to a community, entity or jurisdiction. Hon. Temporary Speaker, we cannot be disaster prepared unless we have mechanisms for response at all levels; from individuals to households and national levels. Preparedness is key. This is the ability to identify what types of hazards we are facing and quantifying them so 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"
}