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{
    "id": 1424974,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1424974/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 360,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13589,
        "legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
        "slug": "maanzo-daniel-kitonga"
    },
    "content": "So far, this department has the support in terms of devolution. Every county in this country has a County Executive Committee Member (CECM) in charge of environment. They even have directors in charge of weather. They may not have sufficient instruments to deal with local weather, but they can collaborate with the Government to have the information shared with them. In fact, if you check your phone now, you can see the weather forecast of any place on earth. The bigger challenge has been predicting how weather will be or when danger is likely to strike. The United States of America (USA) has managed to use that very well. They inform people where and when tornados will occur. We expected a tornado in East Africa, which was to affect Kenya and we took necessary precautions. However, it ended up in Tanzania and caused serious damage. Climate change is real, but what is the best way to respond? Is it by forming one more board? In fact, since this regime took over, we have had close to 100 boards being formed through proposals by the National Assembly and the Senate. Previously, under Mwongozo, there was a general regulation of state corporations. It required that we should combine efforts of as many small boards as possible. That is why the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) was formed and they have been very effective. We also had sugar and cotton boards. Basically, every product had a board and people mismanaged them. We should come up with smaller and fewer boards in the country. One board should do as many functions as possible. I do not think a board is necessary. What is necessary is to strengthen the Kenya Meteorological Department in this country. Weather forecast can be read anywhere in the world at any time even using a mobile phone. If you Google any place, it will show you the weather forecast. Therefore, this proposal by the Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Cheruiyot, is totally unnecessary for now. It is another selfish way of creating jobs for certain individuals and ballooning the wage bill. It should be discouraged as much as possible especially by the state. Next time I have an opportunity to address the President, I will tell him about the many boards that have been formed and how they balloon the wage bill and I am sure he will agree with me. We are now experiencing changes in weather patterns. We plant trees, but we do not water them. That is an exercise in futility. Before you plant a tree, you must know how you are going to water it for the next three months, or forecast the weather properly to know that if you plant trees in different parts of the country, then they will survive. There are trees that we planted in Makueni during the dry season. Those trees are not likely to survive, unless there is a plan to have them watered for the next three months by school-going children or any other system. We just wasted a lot of public resources. If you plant trees and there is rain for the next three months, you would have succeeded. You should not plant trees at the tail end of a rainy season. The tree planting holiday should be rethought a fresh. It should be regionalized, so that we all participate. Personally, I plant trees which can survive throughout in Makueni climatic conditions. We have many people in the county planting trees too. We"
}