Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 812964,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/812964/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 219,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Commissioner, he waited for instructions from his boss in Nairobi. Therefore, if you say “shall”, this authority will set up an office in Kilifi. When they do so, they will overtake the office that is supposed to be at the county. Therefore, who will be the first responder when you have an office of national level in Kilifi? It will be the national Government. That is not the intention. The intention is to make sure that even if they set up, they have one officer not an office. The officer could be a coordinator, but the person to run that would be at the county level. We have looked at this carefully because we knew what would happen when the officer in charge of the NDMA sits at the fourth or sixth floor at Office of the President, he is the same person who was in Solai. Therefore, he had to leave Nairobi and go to Solai. When we had the plane crush, somebody had to leave the leave the Office of the President at Harambee Avenue and go all the way. That is what we are trying to avoid using the word ‘may’. Madam Temporary Speaker, the reason we want to make sure that the Council of Governors (CoG) is involved is because it is not possible to coordinate the 47 counties. The CoG is set up under the Intergovernmental Relations Act with a purpose. There is a person in charge of disaster management. That person is called Gov. Wambora. Therefore, in terms of the representation of the CoG, their representative for now would be Gov. Wambora. Like we had in the Devolution Conference, our Chairman, Sen. Kinyua, was sitting on our behalf as the Chairman, Devolution Committee. That is the purpose of all this. To answer Sen. Omogeni, the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) is everywhere in every county. If we want to know a body that has got organizations of every kind in business is KEPSA. They are in every town. If you want to know the business men in a county, the person to ask would be KEPSA. Therefore, in our view, we stand guided, they are the best placed. My dear colleagues in Clause 13, if we were to open the gates as to who should sit in the Disaster Management team, trust me, even Group 4 Securicor (G4S) would sit there. Therefore, we have suggested in Clause 13 to have the co-option clause. If you have a disaster in Makueni County and you need to co-opt a person either the G4S or the military, the option is left open. Nevertheless, we cannot include everybody. In the non-state actors and NGOs, you find G4S and others. There are people in the non-state actors who have better equipment and personnel than counties, hence the importance of NGOs. Sen. Olekina, that should answer your query. What is the best practice on employing a person in disaster management? The person who leads the United Nations Disaster Management Response Team in Kenya is from Italy and is an expert in disaster. Actually, you do not want to play around with this position which is very technical. You need expertise. I have it in good authority that putting in a person who has a degree in this field is not good enough. It is far much better and is best practiced all over the world to have a person who has some expertise. I met a young man who left Kenya and went to Japan when he was 18 years. He is from the Kalenjin nation. He studied Architecture and got married to a Japanese. He is now Japanese. This gentleman is now an expert in disaster management. He is a Kenyan who designs bridges and buildings. This is a very technical field and we cannot just put 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."
}