Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 930472,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/930472/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 189,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Wajir North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Ibrahim Ahmed",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13505,
        "legal_name": "Ahmed Abdisalan Ibrahim",
        "slug": "ahmed-abdisalan-ibrahim"
    },
    "content": "As we speak, drought is biting very hard. As mentioned by a Member, more than 14 counties are facing very severe drought. Indeed, in my constituency, livestock has started trekking for long distances and livestock mortality has already started. As we speak today, the neighbouring constituency and mine are holding a sub-county security committee meeting because of conflicts over resources. Indeed, if this Bill was put in place earlier, no doubt NDMA would have started the necessary resource mobilisation. As we speak now, I know they are already handling coordination at county level through a group called the “county steering group”. However, they do not have the legal capacity to undertake this despite the fact that they were effectively performing this function. By putting this Bill in place, we are only giving the legal support to a function they were already undertaking with regard to coordination and facilitation at county level. There are different non-state actors who are providing interventions at county level. But, looking at the kind of intervention they are providing, there is a lot of duplication and some dockets are not getting support as we speak. For example, if you look at North Eastern Kenya, malnutrition has already started and it is very high. They depend a lot on livestock and livestock products. Now that livestock mortality rates have started, malnutrition level has gone high. We want an entity that can bring all the non-state actors together to provide the necessary coordination and ensure that distribution is done very well. As we speak now, a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO) can work in any area it finds fit. So, this Bill brings sanity to these issues by ensuring that NDMA can do proper coordination of all actors with regard to drought intervention and even other rapid emergency responses to disasters which can happen. They will ensure there is fair distribution of resources by different actors, be it the Government or other NGOs. Hon. Deputy Speaker, as we speak, it is important that Government ministries move with speed to save lives and livelihoods. I am saying this because the pace at which we are moving, I am afraid we will realise many deaths from livestock and humans. Indeed, I expected by now that we should declare drought a national disaster and ask other donors to come on board so that we can start water trucking, provision of aid to livestock and food to pastoralists to ensure that lives are saved. Usually, we have the tendency of denying and firefighting when deaths occur, and then start acting when many lives have been lost. If a pastoralist loses his animals, that has not only a long lasting impact on him, but also on his extended family and the entire community. The intervention rate should expand to provide psychological support and food to those families who have lost their livestock. So, it is cheaper to spend $1 now to save $2. I want to agree that this Bill is really timely because I have no doubt that drought is biting so hard, livestock mortality has already been realised, malnutrition level in pastoral areas has gone very high, conflict of scarce resources has already started and definitely The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}