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{
    "id": 1414118,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1414118/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 158,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dagoretti North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Beatrice Elachi",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Bill that the national Government should take up responsibility when there is a serious disaster? Part I of the Bill contains preliminary provisions. It talks of an Intergovernmental Council, but we already have a disaster management team at the national level. Should we not get people with expertise on how to deal with disasters? Thailand had an earthquake recently. The whole world was shocked the way they managed that disaster. They managed, quickly enough, to remove people who had got stuck in the rubble. As a country, I think, we are never ready to tackle disasters. We are never ready. We wake up only to realise we are in one. We must begin to do things correctly. For instance, We know why we have floods in Nairobi. It is because the drainages are blocked. Who is responsible of ensuring that we have unblocked drainages? The county government has to look at it. Yes, the Bill comes in at the right time. However, we need to look at it and really ask ourselves some questions. I can see, in the Bill, many functions have been given to counties yet we are saying that counties do not have capacity for now. As we support this Bill, there is need to tidy up many of the things in it. One of the things I can point out is the one on the office of a member of a county committee becoming vacant. How do we ensure the county committee we are putting in place is empowered, that is, if we already have it? We must ask ourselves what the role of the national Government is. I can see county committees. The functions are skewed more towards counties than the national Government. We know very well that counties do not have money to deal with these disasters. The things that counties deal with during a disaster is, say, looking for unga for hungry people and sometimes mabati . God forbid, should a disaster happen that will bring down buildings... We have to be very careful when we give the functions to county governments. When we get to the Committee of the whole House, I propose that we tighten up things and ensure that the national Government takes control of disaster management in the country. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}