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{
    "id": 1490495,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1490495/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 308,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for the opportunity to address this House on a very important Bill. Basically, we are dealing with a natural resource that is mentioned many times in the Constitution of Kenya, including in Article 43(1)(d), where there is a right of everybody to adequate quantities of safe and clean water. On Article 56 on the marginalized; there is an obligation on the state to ensure that the marginalized access adequate quantities of safe clean water. You continue to Article 62 you find that water and water bodies are defined as public resources. Within that construct, we raise a debate on this Bill. Although it does not come out very clearly in these amendments; because basically the amendments are designed to make it possible for private actors to play a very big role in this sector; it is really the duty of the public water works. When these private actors come in, we must be very guarded to ensure that they do not privatize the natural resource. When the regulations are being made for this Bill, for these sections, like the Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), there will be a need to ensure that water remains a public resource. We would have the primary duty being on the state to ensure that it is accessible. Madam Temporary Speaker, more so in Kenya, which is a water scarce country, we are told that about 98 percent of the water on planet earth is in the oceans and the seas and only two percent remains accessible to human beings; unless you go into these modern technologies of desalination and stuff like that. Here, however, we are allowing private actors to come and play a big role in the distribution of water and yet, there is an obligation on the State to make this water accessible. Water is a right. The State is the duty bearer. It should not just be a question of people coming to make profit. This is because, if profit becomes the motive, or if market forces override the primacy of political action within the water sector, then we 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."
}