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{
    "id": 1451292,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1451292/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 139,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Omogeni",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13219,
        "legal_name": "Erick Okong'o Mogeni",
        "slug": "erick-okongo-mogeni"
    },
    "content": "president who will create a department for a function like firefighting that is fully devolved. The point I am also making is that this Bill is too heavy on membership. If you read through, this Board has three PSs sitting in that board. That is too heavy. Remember that somewhere, we have said that they will be paid some allowances. Other than that, you have a PS for Finance and they may not give us any money. They will tell you that you have already gotten your allocation. You have a PS Interior. We do not need policemen to help us in firefighting. The point I am making is that we should have CECMs from the relevant dockets in our county governments. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have no problem with the Red Cross. They do good work in responding to some of these disasters. I am not sure that we need the CoG, which is domiciled in Nairobi. We can pick traders because they are the ones mostly affected when firefighting comes in. They are the ones who can bring concerns to our counties and tell them how they have suffered before. I, therefore, propose that instead of looking at the CoG, we should look for the business community to nominate someone to sit in this board. It is okay to have someone from the national fire brigade. The Kenya Medical Association (KMA) is a national body based in Nairobi. We can have a body of medical practitioners domiciled in our counties. When you send a firefighting station, you also send an ambulance. We can get good input from any organization at the local level that represents the medical practitioners. While on the same point, the appointments should now be done by governors if my proposed amendments can carry the day. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we do not need a Cabinet Secretary in a gazette notice to pick our board for fighting fire at our counties. The Constitution is telling us that we want power to be devolved. Let power be devolved. Once we have picked these people, our governor can issue a gazette notice appointing the Board from our respective county. We do not need the Cabinet Secretary to appoint this Board. With regard to Clause 7, I do not know if we can render any advice on firefighting to the national Government. I propose that the advice be restricted to our county governments because they are the ones we want to advise, so that they can put in place adequate measures to respond to any fire disaster. I propose that we do away with this issue of national Government. This is a function of counties and we want to empower them. We want to ensure that this function that is fully devolved can also be done adequately and ably by our county governments. It is a good thing to recognize that there is a professional body. I did not know that there is a professional body that deals with people who are in the fire and rescue services. I am not sure which university offers this degree or diploma, but it is good to recognize it. If this professional body is there, then we should give it the prominence it has been given in this Bill. Sen. Abass, that is a very good proposal. I have no problem with the powers of the board in Clause 8 neither do I have no problem with the committees of the board if we get the composition right. I have no problem with Clause 9. However, I may have to comment on Clause 12, which says that if you resign the letter of resignation should be addressed to the Cabinet Secretary. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}