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{
"id": 1480062,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1480062/?format=api",
"text_counter": 235,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Aden Duale",
"speaker_title": "The Cabinet Secretary for Environment, Climate Change and Forestry",
"speaker": {
"id": 15,
"legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
"slug": "aden-duale"
},
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. Let me start by thanking Hon. T.J. Kajwang’. This is a current question because Nairobi River is a currency that is important and a priority to this government and the President. As you may be aware, the President recently launched a ground-breaking and ambitious climate resilience service programme called Climate Works. Its aim is ecological restoration of our urban rivers, mainly starting with Nairobi Rivers, while maintaining public infrastructure and housing through labour intensive and sustainable public works. I will have another day to talk about Climate Works. It contains a lot about Nairobi River regeneration and restoration. It also includes pavements, the riparian areas, labour intensity regarding settlements and making sure that roads and lighting are done. It is a huge programme of the government under the able leadership of the President. The initial phase of Climate Works started yesterday in Nairobi City County, along the Nairobi River. In its first phase, 20,000 young people in Nairobi from 42 villages have been onboarded. The first 10,000 cohort started work yesterday. Hon. Temporary Speaker, building on this foundation, we will extend the programme to four other major cities—Kisumu, Mombasa, Eldoret and Nakuru— in the next few months. Another additional 40,000 youths will be engaged. Ten thousand of them will be located in other areas of Nairobi starting early November. In December, because of equity, the Climate Works Programme will be rolled out across all the remaining 47 counties, onboarding 139,909 young people to ensure full national participation and impact. Hon. Temporary Speaker, my ministry is implementing other initiatives to deal with pollution issues in our main urban rivers. The NEMA initiated such a programme called Urban Rivers Regeneration Programme 2019 to 2024 for restoration and sustainable management of rivers within urban areas such as Nairobi, Kisumu, Eldoret and Nakuru which face very serious and critical environmental challenges due to pollution, encroachment and misuse. The root causes of pollution in Nairobi have been identified. Many Cabinet Secretaries shied away but I will not do it. I want Hon. TJ to listen to me. The story in town is that the people you represent in the informal settlements pollute Nairobi River, which is a fallacy. Their pollution contribution is less than one per cent. They do not even have garbage. They have nothing to throw out. What they eat is very little. The garbage comes from the middle class communities, who are the biggest polluters of Nairobi River. They must listen to me. The NEMA has mapped out 145 industries, factories, slaughterhouses and apartments which discharge their effluent to Nairobi River. I have directed the Director-General of NEMA—Mamo Boru Mamo, who is seated here—to enforce the laws that this House has passed. He has no choice. He either enforces the law or he leaves the job. You either shape up or ship out. He wrote restoration orders last week. Industries are the ones polluting Nairobi River. Secondly, the greatest polluter, whom the President has spoken to, is Nairobi Water and Sewerage Company. The President spoke to the two Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of Athi Water Works Development Agency. Their manholes discharge raw sewage into Nairobi River. In fact, we do not have a river but we have a sewage. The third and largest group that destroys Nairobi River is the dumpsites. There are thousands of them along the 47 kilometre-stretch from Kikuyu Constituency to Thwake Multipurpose Dam in Makueni. On Sunday, trucks carrying garbage were in Mukuru Kwa Njenga discharging into the river. I told the Governor The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}