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{
    "id": 767254,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/767254/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 244,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. I rise to support this Motion on the operationalization of the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) Act. I thank my sister for moving fast on this. One of my pet peeves is when we come up with laws and do not implement them. Why bother? In this country the pastoralist communities suffer the most. We are the ones who know the pain of drought. As I stand here, I am saddened by the number of the Maasai community animals that perished. At some point, in the month of March when we expected the rains, if you had traversed the counties of Kajiado, Narok and Samburu, the counties were littered with carcasses of dead animals yet we have a law that we have passed. However, implementing it and giving the Authority enough money to mitigate this drought becomes a problem. I want to urge the Treasury to move fast and come up with regulations that can help the Authority to save lives. Drought is a national disaster. When you have been brought up knowing that your livelihood depends on cattle and then tomorrow you see it dying, it pains. That is why you see us running up and down on a daily basis defending that right. The component of drought preparedness and mitigation plans includes the prediction, monitoring, impact assessment and the response. The only body that has this capacity to do this is the Authority if they are given some money. I know their website has got data but there is really nothing tangible on how we are going to mitigate these issues. Every year we have seasonal rains that come with flooding the little town of Narok where I come from. Sadly, every single year the national Government allocates resources to solve that problem. Therefore, this year we need to look at it as one of the drought mitigation solutions. The amount of water that floods Narok Town is enough to irrigate over a thousand acres of land and grow grass that these cattle can actually access. Going forward, it is high time we realigned our existing resources in this country in order to come up with policies that can help pastoralist communities. It is sad that the Mau Forest has been heavily invaded and we are not even bothered to protect our water catchment areas. All we care about is how we can line our pockets. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I thank my sister for bringing this Motion. Therefore, I want to urge the National Treasury to move with lightning speed to come up with regulations that will allow the funds which have been set aside, presumably it is about Kshs2 billion, for the Authority to act. 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."
}