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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. First of all, I wish to thank Mr. Oparanya for taking his time to do a lot of research to prepare very well for this Motion. This Motion is long overdue. I, therefore, urge Members of Parliament and the Government to take it seriously. Without repeating what has been said by my colleagues, I want to emphasise that disasters will always happen. This is a reality and it is predictable. It is certain. The only thing that is not predictable is the actual timing of its occurrence. It will come in different ways: There is the flooding that we are seeing now in Budalang'i. There is the recent landslides in Kerio Valley and Malaba. There are boats capsizing in lakes and oceans. There are air disasters. Mr. Temporary Deputy Sir, earthquakes do happen. We have already been forewarned by experts that, indeed, this part of Africa must be prepared for very serious earthquakes in the near future. The signals have already been monitored. Response to disasters involve multiplicity of interventions. There is fire fighting, search and rescue, medical response as well as humanitarian response through food, blankets and others. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, what really is the state of our preparedness? Demonstratively, there is none. I say none because the recent disasters, even as minor as they have been, have clearly demonstrated that we do not respond. Even when we respond, the response is weak and too late. But even worse is that we are totally unco-ordinated in our response to that extent that, even though we may have equipment and the personnel to respond, we still have to depend on forces outside this country to fly in, as hon. Muite has just mentioned, to help. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this country has one of the most regimented society in Africa. You only need to attend any of the public holidays - Jamhuri Day and Kenyatta Day. You will see the walk-pasts. How many uniformed forces do we have in this country? Very many. Starting from the girl-guides and scouts all through to the armed forces. There is St. John's Ambulance, Forest Guards and Fisheries Scouts. You name it! What is lacking, therefore, is an institutional framework and a command structure to mobilise all the resources and uniformed forces to respond to emergencies and disasters. I am saying that so that it may not be assumed that in fact, we need a lot of money to have a special force trained to respond. In fact, in all cases, all that is required is an institutional framework, command structure and training of all the various compartments of societies down to the locational and sub-locational level. That way, they will be able to respond responsibly and correctly. We need to train those compartments and carry out regular drills. Hon. Muite has very elaborately said exactly what needs to be done. How do we respond when those situations occur? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we do have the units to do it. If you look at the fire- fighting departments in our municipalities--- If you look at, for example, our hospitals up to the district level--- What we truly need is that institutional framework. We should not, therefore, be afraid that Kenya cannot actually finance an operation that can adequately deal with disasters. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, even in the private sector, you will be surprised that many of those multi-national companies have drills. All their departments and personnel are grouped into units. They are given numbers. There is a person who is in charge of every unit. They are well trained so that, if there is a fire, each unit knows where it is supposed to go. They know who then does what in the event of something. If a small company like Unilever can do it--- If small little companies can prepare for disasters which are likely to affect their institutions, why should the greatest company in this country - the Republic of Kenya and its Government - not be prepared to save its children, personnel and citizens from disasters? Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to mention something about lack of consistency in domiciling that mandate. Recently, we were subjected to a very embarrassing 3862 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES September 12, 2007 situation where hon. Munyes claimed that, that mandate has been taken away from him and given to one of his colleagues. His colleague, who was supposed to be responsible also said: \"Sorry! It is under the Ministry of State for Special Programme.\" That was in response to a very small thing; how do we feed and give blankets to the victims of the Malava landslide? That was a very small thing. Two Cabinet Ministers---"
}