Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 503352,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/503352/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 125,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Aden",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": "pastoralist community. I bet my community will be co-opted as members of the county environment committees. That will be very good because then, we will understand as residents of that particular county what is going on. Depending on the lifestyle of our society, we will then manage our environment well. The counties are also given the opportunity because this Act empowers them to develop action plans specific to their own counties. This is a milestone because counties are divergent, in that they have different forms of environment or different layouts of environment across the country. Those who come from arid and semi-arid environment and forests would worry about protection of forests. Our counties have been given the ability by this Act; with a lot of specifications and guidelines on how that will be done as specified in the Act. They will be able to do their specific actions plans, of which I think it is something positive. An area that might require amendment in this particular Act is the area where the National Environment Council has been done away with and powers given to the Cabinet Secretary. I want to say that, the members of the council before included people who have interest in environment. These include NGOs; the United Nations has dedicated an entire arm to deal and support policy establishments in various countries. But what it says now is that they will no longer have that opportunity at the national level. It is surprising that, while at the county level we allow NGOs to participate in the policy making of the county action plans by being members of the county environment committees, we have done away with the National Environment Council, therefore removing those important stakeholders. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, among the members who have been done away with are universities that spend a lot of time to research on environmental issues. They will no longer be involved in national policy issues. Therefore, I have a lot of challenges with that. It is wise for the Cabinet Secretary, as much as we give him powers on certain issues, to be guided by experts on environment, universities, research centres, NGOs that have got a lot of investment and research into environmental issues and so on. The National Public Complaints Committee has also been abolished. I take a lot of exception with that because looking at the composition of the Public Complaints Committee as was before, I think it was Section 30 (1) of the previous Act, this Committee as existed before comprised of a Chairperson appointed by the Minister who shall be:- (a) A person qualified for appointment as a High Court Judge of Kenya. (b) A representative of the Attorney General. (c) A representative of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK). (d) A representative of the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). (e) A representative of the business community and two members appointed by the Minister who are experts on matters of the environment. All these have been scrapped. That makes us wonder, say that at the national level, I want to raise a complaint against a factory in Nairobi that is polluting the air; very big national issues that negatively impact on the environment are raised, where will such complaints be directed to? Sometimes, those complaints are big and affect several counties. For instance, you pollute River Athi right from its sources in the middle of Nairobi and it pollutes all the 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."
}