HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 61771,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/61771/?format=api",
"text_counter": 354,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Dr. Nuh",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 114,
"legal_name": "Nuh Nassir Abdi",
"slug": "nuh-abdi"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as I stand to support this Bill, I would also want to inform and assure hon. Shebesh that this Board previously, has been ably commanded by a lady just like her for several years. She is a very able professor and I lady I well know. So, she should expect that even in future years, we should be willing to see more women in the Board. Within the African culture and where I come from, it is women who so much care for the animals. In that respect, they deserve to be in that Board with representation of more than one-third. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, while I think most of the issues have already been articulated by my colleagues, I would like to point out that this Bill has been brought here, should I say too late? A few months ago, some hon. Members and I had to go through a series of consultations; not like the ones between hon. Mwai Kibaki and hon. Raila Odinga, but ones which were very mutual to convince Mr. Lekuton not to go ahead with the Para-Professionals Bill. We thought that there was need for regulation of para-professionals. While at it, we were saying that there should be a more comprehensive Bill that carries on board both the surgeons and other para-professionals within the veterinary fraternity. We felt that they needed to be accommodated under one Act, law and regulation rather than having fragmentation within the laws that govern the veterinary fraternity. All the same, we are glad that at last we have a Bill that caters for the fears of both. Previously, lack of regulation of para-professionals had provided loopholes within the society and governing of the Animal Act. This has led to Non-Governmental Organizations taking advantage of that loophole. You would find NGOs training veterinary surgeons in seven days, left, right and centre. Even my grandfather was not trained for seven days. Now that he has the command, at the local level, of how to manage animals, he would still seek the expertise of a veterinary surgeon or a veterinary para-professional. I think this is regrettable and the damage that this has caused cannot be under-estimated. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, lack of this legislation has led to the Government and the public losing a lot in the international market. This creates a very hazardous situation. On public health, animals are taken care of for consumption except maybe pets. They end up in peopleâs stomachs. When we do not have the correct care for animals and you have laymen administering drugs that should otherwise have been administered by qualified professionals, the side effect is that you would have drugs and residues building up in animals. At the end of the day, you consume a cow with lots of antibiotics in the body. Next time when you fall sick with bacteria, you might not even be treated with those antibiotics because you become immune to them and you get sick. Apart from that, we have lost so much when it comes to the international market. In Somalia where you have a stateless nation governed by militias and other satellite organizations, they have created what they call âsafe zonesâ. This has been done in a nation which has no government! They just have a transitional government that cannot go beyond four kilometer squares within Mogadishu. They have created so many safe zones within Somalia and they are able to export their animals far much abroad to Saudi Arabia and to the United Arab Emirates. For our animals, everyone would doubt of their safety when it comes to consumption. This is because regulations have been lax. For us to expect regulations which were set in 1953 to govern us now when we even overhauled the Constitution that has been amended time and again, I think it is just expecting too much. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would not want to dwell much on this because I think some hon. Members would also want to contribute, but I think this Bill has come at a time when we require it most. It is up to the Government not only to set Bills but to ensure that these Bills work. At a time when we are going into the devolved systems of governance, it would be good to see how we are able to harmonize the actions of this Bill, working through this Bill that it is actualized within the centralized and devolved systems because that is where we expect most of the services to be conducted. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I support the Bill."
}