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"speaker_name": "Mr. J.M. Mutiso",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Let me first congratulate my friend, hon. Oparanya, the Member of Parliament for Butere, for his intention in this Motion. Disaster is a risk and its extent cannot be measured. Therefore, Governments or institutions should prepare themselves using proper mechanisms to address disasters. Let me start by saying that the issue of disaster, in this country, has been given lip service. This is not because the officials or the Government is not committed to addressing disaster management, but because of the inherent culture of kleptocracy and corruption in this country. When you do not have structures, you create loopholes for corruption. For there to be corruption it takes two to tango. In the recent report of the Transparency International, the seat of the Government or the Office of the President was ranked as the third most corrupt institution in this country. The National Disaster Management Operations Centre in the Office of the President has been very amorphous and translucent. Why is this so? It is because that is the root of corruption in the Office of the President. We have funds flowing from different donors. For example, we had the spectacular failure of the HIV/AIDS funds which resulted in the removal of the infamous previous director, who was bundled out of office. This is because there was conflict of interest. The appointments to this Department have not be properly defined. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support the sentiments that the Office of the President lacks the capacity to effectively deal with disasters. The statistics are there, we now have more than 32 Ministries. The highest turnover of Ministers and Permanent Secretaries is in the Ministry of State for Special Programmes. Why? This is because the Government has refused to address this problem of corruption in this Ministry. As I speak now, even the current Minister of State for Special Programmes, Mr. Munyes, was here the other week making a statement to that effect. This Ministry has been emasculated by the Executive on purpose to create avenues and conduits of siphoning money meant for disasters or special programmes. I, therefore, agree with the Mover of this Motion, hon. Oparanya, that we need to come up with a clear policy in form of a law to address this issue of effectiveness and capacity in the Office of the President. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Mover of the Motion has enumerated various disasters from 1963 to the latest one. This is a pointer to the vulnerability of this country, particularly when it comes to investments by foreign investors. Doing business in this country is very expensive. Investors have to access a systemic risk. It is not possible where we did not have a policy, institutions and organs defined, to have investors come to this country, invest their money and secure those interests using the insurance route. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are premiums of insuring or doing businesses even in the City. They are astronomically very high. Why? Because the actuarists or insurance industry classifies Kenya as one of the countries with the highest risk because we lack the institutions and capacity to mitigate disasters whenever they occur. The sovereign rating of this country, again, in terms of its performance notwithstanding is also adversely affected because of lack of a proper policy of addressing disasters. Therefore, we have to agree to have a proper policy and institution to address disasters in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, again, another very important issue is that when these disasters happen, we also have collateral damage. We also have institutions which actually have to compensate people. For example, today, we have a case of the Mtongwe disaster which happened sometimes in the 1990s. Its survivors have never received compensation from the Kenya Ports September 12, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3857 Authority (KPA) authorities. We also have the bomb blast disaster. Those who lost their loved ones or were injured and maimed, although they were given tokens, are still today languishing in pain. The compensation aspects have never been addressed. When you have a proper policy and Act, issues of compensation which usually come after the disasters have occurred, will be addressed effectively and people will be able to get their compensation in good time. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the preparedness of this country is wanting. We do have an ad hoc arrangement. The National Disaster Operation Centre which is just a conglomeration of various bodies with small personnel from the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Health and all over, is an ad hoc thing. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I remember when a building collapsed in River Road, it came to the fore that we do not even have the capacity to train small dogs, which are very important in addressing disasters. What a shame for a country to import dogs from Israel or Europe whenever we have a disaster, to help in the recovery of victims! It is high time we granted leave for the introduction of this Bill, to create a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). Indeed, autonomy means freedom to plan, executing those plans and responding whenever disasters strike this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the infrastructure in this country in terms of roads, railways and airports is at a very high risk. We do not have a proper policy of disaster management. Recently, when I was driving along the Mombasa Highway, I saw a few police officers patrolling the road towards the airport. I asked why! I was told that, although those officers were put there to address issues pertaining to terrorism, they were also very busy trying to scare away the birds, which pose a very high risk. Avoidance is an aspect which can be adopted. I hope the Government will take the sentiments expressed in this House seriously, and address the issue of disaster management effectively. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to second this Motion. I hope that this House will pass this Motion."
}