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{
    "id": 503424,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/503424/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 197,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Oyugi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 444,
        "legal_name": "Augostinho Neto Oyugi",
        "slug": "augostinho-neto-oyugi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I will ensure that time allows my very good colleague, hon. Kisoi, to speak. So, I shall be very brief. These amendments are as progressive as they are retrogressive. On the first part, it is a beautiful amendment because it aligns the Environmental Management and Co- ordination Act (EMCA) to the Constitution. That is a good part. The other part is that which does take into consideration issues of county governments. Those are very good thoughts to put in place in terms of effecting an amendment. The best part is with regard to Clause 4 that seeks to align the Bill to the right to information. It is important for people in various parts of the country to know what people who use the environment do with it. The Authority ought to be giving information to various people. That is an interesting part of the Bill. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is a retrogressive provision in Clause 4 that seeks to dissolve the National Environment Council, and I heard a Member speak to it. We do not want to take everything else back to the Cabinet Secretary, because then you are clawing at progress that has been made. It is useful to disband the District Environment Committees and the Provincial Environment Committees because they are obsolete. To that extent, the Bill is very progressive because it seeks to respond to the needs of the county governments and, therefore, aligns the environment law with the Constitution. In the same breath, the Bill is retrogressive because of seeking to amend Section 31 by dissolving the Public Complaints Committee and transferring its functions to a department within the Ministry of Environment, Water and Natural Resource. We should have an arrangement which allows the public to have complaints addressed properly. 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."
}