Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 475057,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/475057/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 274,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Ombaka",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1007,
        "legal_name": "Christine Oduor Ombaka",
        "slug": "christine-oduor-ombaka"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity. I am in support of the establishment of the National Drought Management Authority because drought is a problem we have had for many years in this country. It is a perennial problem. It is not just drought alone that is the problem. When drought strikes, there is hunger. People get emaciated. The media always publishes very stressful images. People and livestock are always brought out in the media very pathetically. That gives a very bad image of our country. I believe that the establishing of the Authority will help in addressing the drought situation in this country. I believe that they will work hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that the right things are done, so that there can be no hunger. There is a lot to be said about agriculture because we do not see much of agriculture going on in the modern manner that it should. So, when drought strikes, why can the Ministry of Agriculture whoever is concerned with food production be responsive and teach the local people on how to carry out irrigation activities? How is irrigation handled in this country? It is important that irrigation is undertaken in this country. People have visited Israel. It is a desert, but that country produces the best food ever. They do not suffer from drought in the manner we do. Israel is a desert which has been improved in terms of irrigation. We have a lot of water in this country. In Nyanza region, where I come from, there is a lot of water; but irrigation activities are very rare yet people continue to suffer from drought. I believe that there is much we can do to mitigate drought, but we are just not implementing our programmes. Putting laws in place is good but if there is no implementation, we will still end up with the problem. I want to stress the fact that we are making laws to create authorities to address the problems that we face. However, implementation is so poor that the laws we make here amount to nothing in terms of improving the lives of our people. So, this is a very good Bill. It will be nice to establish the proposed Authority but we need to stress on the implementation process. Mere paper work will not help. We come up with new authorities every week, but implementation of the same is lacking. The person behind this Bill has done the right thing. Alongside drought, we need to put many other issues into this Bill. For example, whenever there is drought, there is also sickness. People fall ill due to malnutrition. Drought affects animals. This in turn affects human beings. Everybody suffers and, therefore, there is no good health. Droughts are national disasters. When the first case of HIV/AIDS was reported in 1989, retired President Moi declared the pandemic a national disaster. So, we should always treat droughts as national disasters. The sad thing is that the Government is always too slow to respond to drought. That is why individuals and NGOs come in to help. I want to commend them for doing a good job. I also encourage the Government to always come forward and support drought-stricken communities in good time. Thank you. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}