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{
    "id": 1451297,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1451297/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 144,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orwoba",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "This is something that we need to talk about. We cannot keep trying to churn out lawyers, medics and teachers. At one point, we have to understand the supply-demand is not working. The maths is not \"matching.\" How many teachers can you have and how many lawyers can you have? I think in this House itself, 70 per cent of the people sitting here have a background in law, but when you look on the other side, like the Fire and Rescue Services, literally a handful. That is why on the county governments, when they are even trying to pick people who are going to work in that department, they end up calling their cousins with a background in plumbing, or other relatives with no certification in anything because we have simply not professionalized that space. I hope we pass this Bill, clean up this space and devolve this to all the 47 counties. If we are truly intentional about what we are doing in this House, this is one of the huge avenues where we can have many of our youth employed in dignified jobs. When I talk about dignified jobs; it is jobs that you are proud to stand and say, by the way, “I am Gloria Orwoba, I am a fire and safety service professional.” You can even register yourself in an association because you are proud to be part of that industry. This is what this Bill is trying to do. One of the things that I have noticed is that when we are legislating, we pay so much attention to who is sitting in the committee or who will be the chairperson or secretary. That is very good because those are roles that we need. However, when we look at the responsibilities of those committees, sometimes we forget the very important things such as asset management. I can see that we have talked about procuring the equipment that we need for fire safety, but we never talked about asset management and the lifespan. I have a diverse background. I do not know why my fellow Senators such Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale only assumes that I am a gender expert. I have a background in Architecture; that was my diploma. I have a background in community work. I am a senior critical facilities manager who did not just manage a small hospital here, but a huge data centre that employed over 1,500 people all under my command. In my diverse background, I will tell you that one of the things that we need to pay attention to is assets management and the lifespan. What happens once you have bought that fire safety truck? What is the lifespan? Once we are done with that track, if the lifespan is 5 years or 10 years, how do we get rid of it or other equipment? How do we then reinvest whatever little gains that we get from that, back into the business of these fire and rescue services? I would wish that in that particular spirit, we would be able to elaborate within this law. I know that maybe that can be anchored in the regulations, but I wish that we would be able to register some of that information within parts of the amendments. I will seek Sen. Abass's guidance on that because that is something that we do not necessarily look into. That is why, as Sen. Omogeni has said, when there is a fire suddenly in Nyamira County, the track cannot go on because of an issue of maintenance, or the lifespan of the assets that we have there. That is something that we need to consider when we are legislating. 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."
}