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{
    "id": 767228,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/767228/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 218,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 124,
        "legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
        "slug": "samson-ongeri"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker. I speak with a heavy heart on this matter having had the occasion to work in the North Eastern region in the 1960s as a medical doctor in Wajir, Guraro and other areas. I know the sights I witnessed there made a very difficult moment for me in my subsequent activities. All of us know it is basic knowledge that water is life. All of us know that our body mass contains 80 per cent of water. Therefore, any deficit in the supply of water for your body, you succumb very quickly. Certain communities are attached to certain things. For the people in the ASAL areas, livestock is the only wealth that they have for them to survive. If all these two are interfered with, then there is no life in those regions. Unfortunately, as I worked as Kenya’s Permanent Representative to United Nations on Environment, one of the most excruciating events that I had to struggle with was the climate change problem. These are issues arising from climate change. As at that time, I was proposed, and I said that we talk about deserts; the Sahara and Kalahari deserts. However, our own states and countries are in fact the havens of those deserts. I remember sponsoring a Motion. We managed to create it into a form of convention on desertification with particularity to Africa. This is because we knew that the desert is cropping slowly into Africa. It is not only in North Eastern, in Taita Taveta, in the Massai lands, the Maa Community lands’, but even in Kisii, water scarcity is real. We are talking about a resource which is becoming finite. The Mover of this Motion is talking of the operationalisation of the NDMA. It means this debate has been going on since 2016, issues had been raised, the need had been felt, the Bill had been passed and assented to as an Act of Parliament. This indicates a Government which is sleeping on its job; that creation of rules on how to operate this fund is the only impediment to operationalising it. I find it very sad that again we should be spending so much time debating this while we should be debating the effects of this fund that we have created. Is there need for further funds to be created in order to address the need which is so crucial and needful for these societies? I stand here with a very strong message to the Treasury, that if there is any priority to be accorded; this stands out very clearly. Year in and year out, what we are witnessing is all this ravages of drought. Livestock dead left, right, centre a sore sight and even the people themselves. Recently when you looked at Turkana and other places, it is a sad story and with so much resources being wasted elsewhere. There is so much rampant corruption in this country. If half of that money was put into this, this will be a story of the past. Now, there are mitigating factors; we have heard of dams being built. 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."
}