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{
    "id": 395433,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/395433/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 254,
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    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "a few years before it was brought to our country. That was in my other life as a professor of international law. I was actually doing research on the emerging case law on environmental hazards and how governments are increasingly being held accountable for certain hazards in public health. So, we had done a bit of research in other parts of the world including Australia and covered a number of environmental threats including huge masts that we see in our country and the world. When they cause public health problems like cancer and brain damage, and the kind of awards the courts had been awarding. So, we were trying to establish that. That was the first time I came across this plant in respect to some of the desert countries in North Africa; Mali and Tunisia where there was a project like this one which backfired badly. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, a few years later, a toothless goat was brought by one of the minority communities in the High Court of Kenya as an exhibit before the court to show how this goat had lost its teeth after chewing this plant in Baringo. I think it was brought by either the Njemps or the Ilchamus communities. I watched the development of this case with a lot of interest but I was saddened that the judge before whom this case was brought threw out this case on a technicality and, therefore, robbing us of an opportunity to get jurisprudence on this important issue. I want to say that in supporting this Motion, there must be a way in which this House can follow through this issue because the rate at which this plant is spreading, the kind of damage and effects on public health and animal health that this plant is causing, I fear that going forward, if litigation is brought back on this issue, the Government could be slapped with very huge costs of compensation by the courts because there is a connection between the introduction of this plant and the Government. It came as a research experiment promoted by some of the Government agencies. I do not know whether it was the Kenya Agricultural Institute (KARI) or some of these organizations in the agricultural sector that are Government agencies. So, it is proper that this thing be checked, and as the Senate, if this Motion is passed, we should make a follow up to see to it that this issue is addressed. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we do not have to wait for more deaths or for people to lose limbs more than it has happened. Under the new Constitution, Article 25, these treaties that have some of these proposals that I want to share with you briefly are part of The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}