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"content": "which, there can be no life. This country is one of the countries designated by the United Nations (UN) as a country that suffers from water stress and as a country that has inadequate supply of fresh water. Despite the fact that we have the second largest fresh water lake in the world whose waters we have not been able to use because of the 1929 Nile Treaty that was designed by the British colonialists with very anachronistic clauses, you will be shocked to hear the content of that treaty; that 85 per cent of the waters of the Nile were preserved for Egypt, 10 per cent for Sudan and five per cent for evaporation with no Ethiopia and all the riparian countries where the source of the Nile waters come from, including Kenya because 75 per cent of the inflows of Lake Victoria come from Kenya and one cannot imagine a Treaty to regulate the waters of the Nile without consulting. Madam Temporary Speaker, when I was the Minister for Foreign Affairs, we engineered the review of the Nile Treaty and Egypt boycotted to append its signature on the Treaty, but the Africa Union (AU) authorized the member countries to sign it and we did sign it. Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Central Africa and all countries that make major contributions to the inflows of the Nile signed. Madam Temporary Speaker, when I come back to the Bill, I will start from a point raised by the Mover of the Bill. This is not a Bill that has originated from this House. What I would have expected and I feel a little disappointed is that the Committee responsible for water resources – that is why we have committee systems – would have taken the Bill, gone through it, including seeking any expert opinion and views where necessary, come and inform and enrich debate on the Floor of the House. Madam Temporary Speaker, Clause 5 of the Bill left as it is, is inconsistent with the spirit and provisions of the Fourth Schedule of the Constitution. The Fourth Schedule defines water as a shared responsibility between the county governments and the national Government, but this clause is definitive and categorical that every water resource is vested in and held by the national Government in trust for the people of Kenya. It completely locks out the county governments. I have gone through the Bill and that is why I have not been very active the whole afternoon. When my brother asked me to second the Bill, in the last two hours, I have gone through it from A to Z. There is little acknowledgement or assignment of responsibilities, duties and legal cover for county governments in terms of water resource management. To some extent, you can understand that where we have trans-boundary water resources, perhaps exclusively leaving them to counties may pose some operational management difficulties. I have said on the Floor of this House that I cannot envisage a situation where we who live in Nairobi enjoy the water from Ndakaini Dam in Murang’a and say that Murang’a will have absolutely no say in either the management or protection of that resource. Equally, we have trans-boundary rivers across counties, like Tana River, which starts all the way from Mt. Kenya running through Isiolo, Tharaka-Nithi, Meru, Kitui and Garissa counties. The management of that resource should not only be a preserve of the national Government, but a shared responsibility. It is the counties where the resources are based or emanate that are best qualified to be entrusted with the management and the protection of water sources. I hope that we will not include this before we go on recess on 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."
}