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{
    "id": 503377,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/503377/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 150,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Otichilo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 131,
        "legal_name": "Wilber Ottichilo Khasilwa",
        "slug": "wilber-ottichilo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me this chance to comment on this very important Bill. Environment is life. Unfortunately in this country and in many other countries in Africa, we do not take seriously the issue of environment. First, I want to agree with the Chairperson and hon. (Eng.) Gumbo that the number of amendments we are bringing to this current law of Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act are too many. Ideally we should have repealed the current Act and drafted a new one. That would have made life simpler for Members of Parliament to systematically understand this Bill. I am a Member of the Departmental Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. Because these amendments are too many and they are conflicting because we do not have the original Act to compare with; most stakeholders have had it rough. As a Committee we have had to go through a lot of proposed amendments because of these conflicts in terms of having too many amendments. Ideally, it would have been good to repeal this Act and come up with a new Bill. Anyway, it is already done. We shall have to do with what we have. But we are going to have a very hard time, particularly when it comes to the Third Reading because the number of amendments that are going to come, will be more confusing. It will take many hours to eventually go through this Bill. Having said that, I think these amendments are very timely. Because of our new Constitution, this Act needs to be realigned with our new Constitution. It specifically needs to specify clearly what the role of the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) is. This is because there has been a lot of confusion on the role of NEMA. As you can see from the title of the Bill and the current Act, it is “Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act” but the work NEMA has been doing has been beyond coordination. They have, in fact, been involved in actual implementation. That has brought a lot of confusion. So the current amendment is clearly stating the role of NEMA which is mainly to coordinate and enforce the law. So, that is extremely important to be clear about."
}