Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 642150,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/642150/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 242,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Ottichilo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 131,
        "legal_name": "Wilber Ottichilo Khasilwa",
        "slug": "wilber-ottichilo"
    },
    "content": "We have increased cases of waterborne and respiratory diseases because we are not giving enough consideration to our environment. When we do not clean our water, it gets stagnant and mosquitoes breed there. That is why we have several cases of malaria. Cholera is striking many places because we are not prioritising our environment and we are going to spend a lot of money on our health which could have been avoided. Our education system has not built a culture where our children know how to keep their environment clean. In developed places like Europe and Singapore, kids know that you must keep your litter or put it in a disposable place. Our schools have not inculcated any culture of keeping our environment clean and healthy. This Motion is urging the Government to put in place a curriculum in our schools from kindergarten to university that people give priority to their environment, so that wherever they live is clean. People should be responsible for any litter they carry. Some of us have had chances to go to Rwanda and if you have a plastic or litter, you cannot leave the airport. If you litter, you will be penalised immediately. Recently, when Tanzanians were supposed to celebrate their Independence, their President decided to go out to the streets of Dar-es-Salaam and started cleaning. Instead of people celebrating and eating, he asked all Tanzanians to go and clean the streets. This Motion proposes that we emulate what countries like Tanzania, Rwanda and other developed countries are doing. We cannot continue living in filth hoping that somebody somewhere will rescue us. It is important that Kenyans appreciate environmental aesthetics; an environment where you feel nice, the air is clean and where you are comfortable staying. Kenyans seem not to appreciate that. They are just throwing everything making everything filthy and dirty, but we cannot condone that type of culture anymore. It must stop and that is why I brought this Motion. Most fundamentally, the litter all over the country is having a major impact on climate change. Everybody all over the country is feeling the heat. Where is it coming from? The materials we are throwing on our roads emit gases like carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide which evaporate into the atmosphere forming a layer which makes sure that the rays of the sun do not escape back to the atmosphere when they hit the ground. That is why everybody is complaining that it is too hot. If we go on with what we are doing, it is going to be much hotter and it will be impossible for us to live. By cleaning our environment, we will be dealing with the challenges of climate change. Climate change is a reality and nobody should cheat himself or herself that it is about to go away. It is going to be around for more than 100 years to come. We must be prepared for it. The best we must do is to clean our environment. Everybody must be responsible. When you take a piece of paper from this House, please, do not litter it outside. You must put it in a disposable place. This is the essence of this Motion. This Motion is seeking that the Government declares one Saturday of the month for everybody to stop what they are doing and clean our environment. If this Motion goes through and is implemented, within two or three years, Kenyans would have learnt a good culture of keeping their environment clean and healthy. I do not want to belabour this Motion because it is straightforward and well covered in our Bill of Rights and Articles 69 and 70 of the Constitution. We must implement it. We are notorious for making good laws, but we do not implement them. Why are we always legislating, but not implementing? I wish Members of this House can support this Motion, so that we can pass it and request the Executive and every Kenyan to do what I am proposing in it. 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."
}