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{
    "id": 835438,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/835438/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 156,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Maara, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kareke Mbiuki",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 79,
        "legal_name": "Japhet M. Kareke Mbiuki",
        "slug": "japhet-kareke-mbiuki"
    },
    "content": "and management of our environment for the wellbeing of everyone. Good environment is beneficial to the present and future generations. Article 42 of the Constitution provides for a clean and healthy environment as a right for everyone. In Kenya, industrial waste management is a major challenge due to non-adherence to the Environment Protection Management Act. While you have focused on the LDK, this Report serves as a notice to all other industrial actors to ensure they adhere to all environmental protection laws and ask them to desist from releasing their poisonous effluent to the detriment of the neighbourhood. We cannot afford to have waste being dumped into the water that people and animals downstream are consuming. The effect of the waste on water eventually results to bad health, various types of cancers and even death. Going by the contribution of many Members on this Motion and the investigation by the Committee, it is clear that the authority that is charged with the responsibility of protecting the environment, that is, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) is sluggish in executing their mandate. We know that the authority seems to be incapacitated and therefore the Committee urges the Ministry of Environment and Forestry to build the authority’s capacity to effectively and efficiently undertake its mandate. The Government scrapped the environmental impact assessment fee which was a source of Appropriation-in-Aid contributing 67 per cent of the budget for NEMA. This impacted negatively especially in the operation of the authority as no alternative funding has been advanced by the Government. I therefore urge the Government through the National Treasury to consider reinstating the fee for the authority to operate effectively as it is currently operating under the three per cent budget. The Committee noted that NEMA was reactionary in executing the issues of the complainant against LDK as it only acted after issues were raised. The authority issued closure orders which were not effected by the LDK raising concerns of its effectiveness and authority in environmental matters. Further, NEMA seems to be inconsistent with Environmental Protection and Management Act. On one hand, they issue environmental impact assessment licence with conditions yet they fail to follow on the adherence of the conditions by the applicant. It is therefore incumbent upon the authority to act proactively in addressing such pollution-related issues in order to stem environmental degradation in line with the precautionary principle in international environmental law. We also note that the area in question had changed user through the defunct Municipal Council of Machakos. The change of user allowed a mix of use for both industrial and residential purposes. This could have been the source of conflict between the two protagonists. It is therefore incumbent upon the County Government of Machakos to ensure that it creates master plan for land use in Athi River to avoid mixed user status of land which in the first place generated the environmental pollution conflict. Before I conclude, allow me to thank your office and that of the Clerk of the National Assembly for facilitating the Departmental Committee on Environment and Natural Resources to undertake its inquiry into the complaint of the environment pollution by LDK. I also wish to appreciate the Members of the Committee for their tireless efforts in conducting this inquiry which included visiting the site as early as 4.00 a.m. in the morning. With those few remarks, I beg to reply. I thank you."
}