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{
    "id": 767245,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/767245/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 235,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Kamar",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 33,
        "legal_name": "Margaret Jepkoech Kamar",
        "slug": "margaret-kamar"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me the opportunity to add my voice to this great Motion on the operationalization of the National Drought Management Authority Act. It is only in order for this Senate to remind the authorities that the Bill was passed and assented to in April last year. Now that the election mood is over, we need to embark on this agenda. The National Drought Management Authority Act must have looked at the drought management in its entirety and how we should manage drought and the resources that we have in the face of drought. I believe that this Act, when it is operationalized, will map out the very vulnerable areas as far as drought is concerned. This country has different climatic zones and some areas are more vulnerable than others. In fact, I dare say that because of climate change, new areas have been introduced into the arena of drought. The cycle of rainfall patterns that we have had has changed. Areas that never used to experience any drought are starting to feel the same. In Uasin Gishu, last year rains delayed and only came during harvesting time. Therefore, we received rain at the wrong time. So, there is need for mapping out of the areas. We have a lot of experts in this area and they should predict exactly how the pattern will be in order for us to use the different strategies. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I looked at the way the Motion is structured and I know that it will fall under the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government. However, I would like to put forward that experts that we have in climate change and drought mitigation are in the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. We have a lot of good experts that have dealt with climate change issues, climate change mitigation issues and climate change adaptation and these are the kind of people we need. As the ministry looks at how to operationalize the National Drought Management Authority Act, it must look at how to borrow expertise that exists in the country. Kenya is known for its expertise as far as environment is concerned but we have a lot of documentation also in mitigation and adaptation. It is okay to fund drought issues or provide for the people and animals in the areas affected by drought but that is short lived. What those areas require are mitigation and adaptation strategies that will be used for long-term management of the areas and I believe that this authority will be able to do that. I will not take long. I want to finalize by saying that although we have a lot of documentation, sometimes we have been very slow in implementation. This is an area that this Motion has picked out very well; that we need to operationalize some of the Acts and laws that we have. More than that, we actually need to implement some of the strategies that have already come out. We know that during climate change conferences, Kenya has given a lot of strategies that have been adopted by other countries and we need to implement them ourselves so that we move. 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."
}