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"id": 18862,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/18862/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Wambugu",
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"id": 149,
"legal_name": "Clement Muchiri Wambugu",
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"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will also not take a long time on this. First and foremost, I want to congratulate my fellow Member of Parliament from Emuhaya, Dr. Otichilo, who is a Member of the Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing where I also serve. He has been an inspiration to many, especially when it comes to air space study and also in other areas. This Motion is very timely because Kenya as a country has lagged behind in this area just because we have not put proper legislation in place. When I saw this Motion this morning, I said that I must put some words into it, to see that we are able to push through and ask the Government to formulate the National Space Science and Technology Policy. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is a lot that we can talk about on the advantages of space study and what there is, especially these days when space study has become a business and not necessarily to provide services like the ones that we have talked about. Countries which started this study just after Kenya got into the field, like Nigeria and South Africa, have already done a lot and some of them are the ones who are providing communication channels through the mobile systems. I believe that Kenya would have been very far if it continued with the system or the study that it started way back in 1960s. I know we have talked about weather and the support that we can get from satellites, but of late, Kenya has been experiencing drought, but it is just that our Meteorological Department has not been able to get accurate information from the systems that they have. You will realize that although we have the capability of even launching our own satellites, most of the information that we utilize in this country, we have to pay for it. In countries where they have information more readily available, we are able to track the weather patterns, the cloud movement and how the sea is moving. For example, when we had the Tsunami, the people who had satellite information were able to track the movement of the waves. If we can invest in this technology, it would be an advantage to our fishermen because we can track, through the satellite, the movement of the fish and we do not need to wonder around in the ocean looking for the fish. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when it comes to navigation, I know most of the times we always concentrate on air navigation. It is very important that we have GPS stations. The same would be useful even when we are navigating over sea. Many times we have had ships running at ground even when they are coming to the Port of Mombasa and other areas. The satellites would also be of great use especially if we connected them with our search and rescue facilities. We have our Air Search and Rescue Facility Centre at Embakasi and also the Maritime Research Rescue Facility at Mombasa. If we had such a facility, we would benefit a lot. Just for the benefit of the other Members, Kenya is so well situated for this study because we are at the equator. That is why you find that most of other countries would like to come to our country to position some of their equipment. We are around the equator and if we launch our satellite, we will be in such a critical position where we can track whatever is happening around the world. Just for information, the station that is being used by the Italians was established sometimes back in 1964. Unfortunately, it is being managed by the University of Rome when we have Kenyans who can be doing that work. Sometimes in 1995, it was transferred to the Italian Space Agency. Back in 1996,"
}