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{
    "id": 503397,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/503397/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 170,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Tonui",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1242,
        "legal_name": "Ronald Kiprotich Tonui",
        "slug": "ronald-kiprotich-tonui"
    },
    "content": "the required documents can be costly and time consuming; therefore, not many people will be keen to go through that process. We need the Public Complaints Committee, to which you can simply write a small letter giving certain details and they address the issues to do with the environment. I know there is a tribunal which is being formed here, but a tribunal is still a court and requires lots of preparation before you go there. Some of us are not lawyers and we may not do that. We need something at which a common man, who has a genuine complaint, can have it addressed. The Public Complaints Committee really needs to be captured in this Bill. Currently, there are issues of double payments which need to be addressed also. If you are building a structure, or doing something, which affects the environment, you are required to pay a fee to the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) to get approval. Also at the county level, you need to pay something to the County Environment Department. This is duplication and it makes business very expensive. That should also be captured in this Bill, so that we reduce the cost of doing business at whatever level. This Bill also captures something in climate change. There is a Bill we have already approved on climate change. I do not know where we should be capturing issues on climate change. Should they be in this environment Bill, or should they be in the Climate Change Bill, which we have dealt with in this House? I do not know if this one is misplaced. They need to be redirected to the other Bill, which we have done in this House. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am happy to note that this Bill brings in the county governments. The county environment committees will be formed under this Bill, so that issues of environment can be addressed at the level of the county. How I wish that this could be extended all the way to the sub-location level, so that those issues can be addressed very well. If we only have county environment committees, I know they are likely to concentrate only on urban areas and ignore rural areas. We need this thing to be more comprehensive and to go all the way. I am not happy with the dissolving of the National Environment Council (NEC) and then transferring all the power to the Cabinet Secretary in charge of environment. That is concentrating power in one person. I think we need to get rid of that. We need to have proper devolution. We need to have so many people participating in decision- making process, so that corruption can be reduced. Where one person is making decisions, I believe we are going to create billionaires. Once they make a decision, it is final and they are likely to go in a certain direction. If we can have this Council to advise and make recommendation to be acted upon by the Cabinet Secretary, that would be good because it would reduce corruption and avoid concentration of power in only one person. I am also happy that it is dealing with the issue of access to information. It is so important for the public to get access to information in the environment sector, so that they are well informed of their rights."
}