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"content": "First, I want to thank the Committee on National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations led by Sen. Yussuf Haji, Sen. Sakaja and others for the work they have done and the public participation on the Disaster Risk Management Bill. The matrix that I have shows that Kenyans had a lot of interest in this Bill. I am proud to say that the United Nations team on disasters attracted comments to this Bill. I must disclose that Kenya has been chosen as the country that will showcase its disaster management practices in Tunisia this year. So, this Bill could not have come at a better time. We must show the world and Africa, particularly, Tunisia, where they have chosen as the place to showcase disaster management. The 13th of October is the United Nations (UN) day for celebrating and commemorating disaster management. Madam Temporary Speaker, I hope, pray and cross my fingers that this year Kenya will showcase this Bill as a way of showing that we have truly matured as a country. For the first time since Independence, Kenya has a Disaster Policy, which was approved by the Cabinet on 27th March, 2018. Unfortunately, that Policy is still a secret or ‘ siri kali,’ which is a word that I do not like. We do not have it and we have requested that it be on public. Ideally, policy is supposed to inform law. Therefore, we are supposed to marry the two, so that we do not have shortfalls. The intention of this Bill is what my colleague has mentioned. At the end of this Bill, that is, Clause 37, we have transitioned all organisations that are dealing with national disaster operations in Kenya to one unit, the Authority. Madam Temporary Speaker, during public participation, this was the bone of contention. The NDMU, the NDMA, the NDSOC, sitting in various Ministries, agreed that this is the way to go. This is a great achievement for this country because the bottlenecks of disaster management have been the various organizations and units that have been set up to do inter-agency. During the investigations on the disaster in Solai that are ongoing, the Cabinet Secretary, Ms. Rachael Omamo, disclosed disturbing things to us. The first one is that it is only the military that has a unit in Embakasi that can respond to disaster in the country and nobody else. In the case of Solai, the people who went to the ground were actually cadets because the military unit in Lanet and Nakuru is in Somalia. If you want to find out when they got to Solai, you calculate the distance from Lanet to Solai. They got to the site at 6.00 a.m. on 10th May, 2018 and the incident happened at 8.30 p.m. on 9th May, 2018. Even the idea that it took so long to call the military to help, is itself a statement that we have failed. President Uhuru Kenyatta, in his statement about the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS), has vindicated the work that we have done with Sen. Sakaja. The President has allocated, through the Ministry of Finance, Kshs1 billion, which has already been remitted to the KRCS for purposes of dealing with all the disasters that happened in the country during the last floods. What does that tell you? It tells you that President Kenyatta realizes that the units which have been formed under the Office of the President have no capacity. When you have the KRCS dealing with every single problem in the country from Makueni, Tana 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."
}