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{
    "id": 765226,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/765226/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 182,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Josphat Wachira",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13441,
        "legal_name": "Josphat Kabinga Wachira",
        "slug": "josphat-kabinga-wachira-2"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this very important Motion on climate change. Climate change issues have been with us for a very long time. I believe this policy framework is even late for adoption. In our country we have many changing climatic patterns. Some of us come from agricultural areas. I come from Mwea where we produce rice. Our production of rice highly depends on the rainfall patterns. It is therefore important to ensure that our people have the capacity to adapt to climate change. When we talk about this Motion, I am forced to look at the policy framework not only in terms of policy issues at the Cabinet level, but also at the level of our communities which lack the capacity to adapt to various climate changes. When they are affected by climate change, they do not know how to look for alternative means of survival. In the last season, in my constituency, we did not harvest rice due to drought. My people in Mwea ended up suffering because of an inadequate capacity to adapt to climate change. It is high time we put in place a policy framework that will enable our people down there to be prepared for some of these changes, say, eventualities and seasons that they may not have witnessed in the past. In the history of Mwea, never before has the bottom of a canal been seen. We do not know how it looks like. In the last season, because of drought, all the canals dried up. As a result, our people suffered hunger. They were not expecting it. Some of them went to the extent of withdrawing their children from school because they lacked alternative means of survival. All these things I have mentioned are effects of climate change. Therefore, I rise to support this Motion that Kenya requires a very effective policy framework on climate change that should trickle down to the people. Technical people out there should enlighten our people on climatic issues that are rarely expected. Had that been done in my constituency, we would have grown something else as opposed to waiting for another whole season to plant rice thus affecting our people. I support."
}