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{
    "id": 1424933,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1424933/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 319,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Mungatana, MGH",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "department as a simple department within a ministry. The issues of climate change have become now a major global agenda. Kenya, through the President, is heading the Africa Climate Change effort that is done through the heads of states in the African Union (AU). Our President has been at the forefront, pushing the climate change agenda. So, it is incumbent upon us to also do what we can from behind. When we set up the Metrological Authority that will be able to attract funding and enter into global partnerships, then we are heading in the right direction towards the climate change response. Metrology is a science that requires a lot of research. When you look at the specialists who are employed in the department in the ministry, we are not able to attract the kind of personnel that is required. This is because of the remuneration that is given to all the staffers keeping with the terms and conditions that are within ministries. Some of the knowledgeable people that are required are highly trained personnel. If we create an independent organization, then that organization will be able to attract other forms of remuneration and compensation to attract highly trained personnel to work in the Kenya Meteorological Service Authority that we are creating through this Bill. If this authority becomes a reality, the Government of Kenya will have a central place where we can invest seriously in research. Issues related to weather are highly advanced and regulated in more advanced economies. In fact, in those economies, specialization is high because they depend on the weather for their economy to function. So, accuracy around the predictability of how the weather will look determines the productivity of those countries. Therefore, because of the kind of shift and changes that have taken place within the environment and climate we live in, it is necessary, whether we like it or not, to adapt to the new reality. The new reality is that we have different weather patterns that are emerging. So, we need a new strategy and research methods to deal with them. As the meteorological department is constituted, it cannot handle the changes coming with the new climate realities we live in these years. Setting up this organization will attract the research knowledge and investment required for us to successfully move the Kenyan society to another level. The issues of predicting climate and climate change preparedness will be tackled under the new authority. These issues are real for us. People from highly climate-affected areas like Tana River County will need more accurate predictions of weather patterns, so that we are prepared. For example, if it is predicted that we will have long rains or long dry spells. The kind of information that will come from this new body will be more reliable. It will help the farmers in Tana River County to invest in accordance to the proper weather patterns. It will help people doing livestock farming in Tana River County predict the weather patterns and invest accordingly. Sometimes, we suffer heavy losses because we experience longer dry spells than anticipated, and our cattle farmers, who value their animals, keep them with the hope that it will rain. Without proper predictions, we have massive losses because the cows start falling off, then the goats and the sheep because people live on hope and traditional ways of predicting whether it will rain. However, if we have a proper meteorological prediction"
}