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{
    "id": 595608,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/595608/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 224,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, this Bill has been developed and we must salute the research arm of your office and the Senate, which evolved the idea and brought it to our Committee that is chaired by the distinguished Senator for Garissa. We have gone through this Bill many times. It makes provision to devolve disaster management. In the history of the country, we have had one disaster upon another. Whenever this happens, the whole country is at a loss as to where emergency responses should come from. For example, during the Westgate terror attack, we saw competition between the County Government of Nairobi and the national Government; the army competing with the police and everybody else wanting to be part of the action. They ended up doing very little. In fact, in the case of Westgate, we are told the process of busting the terrorists caused more harm than good. The army just went there and bombed the mall when, in fact, the Recce Squad, an arm of the General Service Unit (GSU) was closing in on them. In the process, we lost many lives. That kind of bravado comes in the absence of an enabling law for such management. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are also oblivious of the fact that there are many disaster prone areas in this country where you can predict with precision and not these fraudulent predictions about the El Nino that never comes and money is being expended left, right and centre. We were told that El Nino will start on 7th October, 2015. We are now at the end of October and every day, there are all manner of warnings over the radio that when the rains come, do not walk on water, do not do this and that. We have disaster prone areas like Budalang’i in Busia County and Nyando in Kano Plains, where there is a cycle of flooding every year. The disaster of drought in Kenya is an annual cycle. There are times when some parts of this country go for one to two years without a drop of rain. They need attention and we cannot count on the centralized system of Nairobi being the response centre for disasters. The previous governments of Mzee Moi and Mzee Kibaki had actually put in place the Directorate of Arid and Semi-Arid Lands in the former Ministry of State for The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}