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{
    "id": 812293,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/812293/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 184,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "The disasters are classified under Clause 1 (b) at any time after consultation with the relevant county committee if the magnitude and severity or potential magnitude and severity of the disaster differs from the initial assessment. This Bill seeks to appreciate between a disaster that you can term as a county and a national disaster. It says a disaster is a county disaster if it affects a single county, and the county concerned is able to effectively manage it. However, if it happens in a county and a county is not able to manage that disaster, then it becomes a national disaster. This classification in itself is to try and bring effective management of disasters. You can imagine how effective it would be if you have an authority that is able to liaise with all those players in the counties and the national field when it comes to disaster. We can get ready and prepare for disasters. We can prevent that. However, when it happens and we are not able to prevent, then we can mitigate them. In the mitigation, we can even mitigate to an extent that we have recovery programs for those who have suffered. Madam Temporary Speaker, I wonder what is happening to the Solai tragedy victims. Have we checked on them? Have we done a recovery programme for them? Are there rehabilitation programmes for them? That child that Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. is talking about, a neighbour, father, sister, and brother were swept away. Have we reached out to have rehabilitation programmes for these children or victims? Look at the Westgate tragedy; probably, it is long forgotten. Where are the victims? Look at the Garissa attack; where are the victims? Have we reached out to them? Over and above all that, I wonder whether we are learning as a country. I do not want to imagine that up to now, we do not have a proper disaster management in place. We only rely on the Kenya Red Cross Society and volunteers to run around without a proper framework to support even that running around of those that volunteer. This is a Bill that seeks to bring proper coordination when it comes to management. That is why we are creating a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) that can help us to coordinate these programmes for purposes of intervention. This Bill has incorporated, not just the inter-county interventions, but also the national interventions. It even seeks to see how we can bring in regional and international interventions. We all know that we had to call in experts from outside in order to manage the Westgate tragedy and the bomb blast that happened in 1998. We can tap in on the expertise out there, but within a proper framework as to how to engage with that expertise. This Bill has come out and we should try and bring sanity in as far as this coordination is concerned. 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."
}