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"id": 207961,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/207961/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Ms. Mbarire",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Transport",
"speaker": {
"id": 78,
"legal_name": "Cecily Mutitu Mbarire",
"slug": "cecily-mbarire"
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"content": " Thank you, mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this debate. I rise to support this Vote. Let me begin by congratulating the Minister and his team of professionals in the Ministry, who have worked hard to do the things that have been seen and felt by Kenyans. I also want to congratulate them for streamlining the Ministry, and finding it necessary to decentralise water services to the grassroots level, and even include stakeholders in ensuring that they participate in whatever the Ministry does, something which has been seen to bear fruit at the grassroots level. I want to begin by saying that I also thank the Ministry for having come in to resolve a conflict in Embu, and in particular in Runyenjes, between the water company and consumers. I am grateful to the Minister for having gone there personally to ensure that the people of Kieni got what they wanted. We thank the Ministry for having, expeditiously, ensured the implementation of the wishes of the people of Kieni, and for ensuring that they have a water company they can identify themselves with, and work with. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am shocked to learn from the Minister that Kenya has been classified, internationally, as a chronically water scarce country. Obviously, that has sent shivers down my spine, considering that we have so much to talk about in terms of the environment. We have Mount Kenya, the Aberdares Mountains, Mau Forests, and others, which we hoped would make Kenya not to be classified as such. Having listened to the Minister, I cannot 3310 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 21, 2007 help but feel that so much needs to be done to ensure that we do not fall into this category. I have also listened to our able Prof. Wangari Maathai and thought that, really, somebody needs to listen to that voice. Even as Parliament, we need to add our voices to what she has been talking about, and what she has been identified with. I feel that she is probably talking to the walls, because there is so much that needs to be done, yet no one seems to be doing it. Being a person coming from a mountainous area, namely, the Mount Kenya region, I am extremely aware of the fact that our rivers are drying up. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the mountain caps are, slowly, melting away. This is an indication of what Kenya is going to be in another 10-15 years. It is, therefore, about time that we all listened to the cries across the world, and particularly in Kenya, on the need to start, seriously, looking into ways and means of protecting our water catchment areas. I want to support the professor on the need to have a national tree planting week. I am happy that it is a week, and not a day. Unless we do this, we are likely to witness a country that will be in serious problems, and this Ministry will be a major victim of that situation. I also note that it is not possible for this Ministry, on its own, to achieve this very important task. Therefore, there is need for creation of an inter-Ministerial task committee, which should be recognised at the Cabinet level. This is very critical. We are talking about a whole generation being wiped out by the threat of climate change. Therefore, we have the moral obligation to make sure that Kenya stands the test of time. I am also very much worried about the cultivation that continues to take place along the waterbeds, the harvesting of sand in the riverbeds and also, most recently, as we have witnessed where I come from, Embu, the harvesting of stones and gravelling of the same for sale as people try to look for bread and butter. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, this goes on unnoticed. Even if it has been noticed, nothing is being done about it. I have raised this issue in a District Development Committee (DDC) meeting, but nothing is being done about it. So, something has got to be done. The State corporation vested with the task of ensuring preservation of water catchment areas has got to go beyond the forests, into the rivers and the farms, where farmers are farming. We must protect our rivers and ensure that they have clean water, like it used to be in the past. In the past, if you needed a mirror, you just needed to go to a stream, and you could see your face clearly. Right now, that is no longer the case. Our waters are brown in colour - a sign of the soil erosion that is taking place on a daily basis. We must ensure that this comes to a stop. I hope that the Minister is going to take note of what has been raised, not just by me but even by the speakers who have spoken before me, and ensure that this matter is taken very seriously by the Cabinet. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we must also look for ways of harvesting rain water. I raised this issue last year, when I supported debate on this Vote, but there is not much happening. A lot of rain water goes to waste, because we do not harvest it from our roof-tops and rivers. We let all the water drain into streams leading to the major rivers, which flow into the Indian Ocean. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, if we could have a water harvesting policy that is truly looking into how to harvest water in all parts of this country, I believe there would be no day we would go without water. I hope that this Ministry will look into that and ensure that we have a policy strictly on water harvesting. That way, we will not have problems of water when there are no rains. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to talk about the cost of water in the villages. In the past, water used to cost Kshs90 for an average number of litres that a farmer needed to use per month. That cost has gone up, since the establishment of the water companies, to Kshs250. That may look little to us. But it is a lot of money to the person in the village. Therefore, I am requesting the Minister and his team to look into that issue and reduce that price. It is too high August 21, 2007 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3311 for a person who earns or lives on less than a dollar a day. Such a person, surely, would never be able to enjoy the services of your Ministry, if you continue to charge Kshs250. So, please, look into ways and means of going back to Kshs90. Where I come from, the people are complaining. They are saying that Kshs250 is too high. I agree with them because they do not have much money. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to focus on irrigation as an alternative source of job creation for the youth back in the villages. We have thousands and millions of young people who are leaving schools every year and joining the job market. Those young people are resorting to drug and alcohol abuse because they get desperate. That is because the farms they live in are only used to grow the usual traditional cash crops. The energy in those young people can be channelled positively into irrigation and production of horticultural products. We can begin to export our own oranges, and not to import them from Egypt, as one speaker said earlier. We can begin to export exotic vegetables to countries that have no rain and to the West. That can only happen if we have water all year round. Therefore, I hope that the National Irrigation Board, and even the department charged with the task of irrigation in the Ministry of Water and Irrigation can start receiving more money to make that a reality. Where irrigation is taking place, we are seeing many young people who are able to live a decent life. They get self-employed. But they cannot do that when they have no water. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, may I also add my voice to the issue of the sewer systems in our towns. I want to say, in particular, Runyenjes Town, which is a very young municipality, to date, it has no sewerage system. We are still using the old type of latrines in the town. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}