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"content": "River, Lamu, Garissa and Marsabit to Solai itself, yet it is a non-state actor, we could have come at a better time. This issue is absolutely late. Madam Temporary Speaker, when there was fire in Gikomba, a group of non- state actors who deal with fire sent a draft Bill to me so that I can sponsor a firefighting and response mechanism; the Firefighting and Response Act. They felt that that this issue should be dealt with separately from disaster management. Disaster management and firefighting has been put under county governments. A case in point is Nairobi City County and Sen. Omanga – Mama miradi – is here. What is Nairobi City County doing about firefighting? For how long are we going to talk about the fire engines that are parked in Moi Avenue? For how long are we going to talk about fire engines that go to disaster sites without carbon dioxide and water? Madam Temporary Speaker, the most important part of Clause 5(a) on the functions of the Authority, which states that:- “The Authority shall— (a) adopt a co-ordinated inter-agency approach in disaster prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery activities.;” Sen. Sakaja spoke about prevention, which is better than cure. In this case, it is better to deal with prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery. In the case of Solai Dam – I am going to use that example again – the Meteorological Department has provided our Committee with information on the flow of flood water into Solai Dam, before and after the disaster. We have been told that this information was available to an organization under the disaster response team, called the National Disaster Operations Centre (NDOC). What did they do with this information? Why did they not alert the people in Solai to vacate, when it was obvious that they had information that there was going to be a lot of water in Solai? In the case of Masinga Dam, the Meteorological Department has said that because of the coordination with the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), they were able to evacuate Kenyans before they were trapped by the water. Madam Temporary Speaker, the Senate has, since 2013, tried to get money for disaster management but we have faced bottlenecks. In 2013/2014 and 2015/2016, the Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA) had recommended Kshs4.5 billion to be given to counties for purposes of dealing with disasters. Sen. Sakaja mentioned disaster management in counties and that counties should be the first responders. I am, therefore, not surprised that Nairobi City County has budgeted Kshs162 million for disaster management and Kshs405 million for entertainment, because the cap given in the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act is two per cent. Actually, it is not possible that two per cent of the budget of Nairobi City County is Kshs162 million. The delegation of Nairobi in the Senate is the largest. Therefore, my colleague Senators, you must condemn this action. If there is one centre of disaster in Kenya, it is Nairobi. They should, therefore, budget even more than the cap that has been given. Madam Temporary Speaker, under Clause 12, stakeholders suggested that we actually do not need to put a person with a degree there. They said, “Dear Senators, please put people there who have Masters Degrees;” because I am told that this country has the best expertise when it comes to disasters. 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."
}