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{
    "id": 932757,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/932757/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 439,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 124,
        "legal_name": "Samson Kegeo Ongeri",
        "slug": "samson-ongeri"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Madam Temporary Speaker, for allowing me to express my sympathy and condolences to the families in West Pokot, Taita-Taveta, Meru and Murang’a counties who have experienced nasty flooding during heavy rains. This is not a new story in Kenya. We have been having disaster after disaster. Watching those clips is very worrisome. We have seen children, fathers, mothers and members of the community struggle to salvage what they can. I felt bad when I heard that Wei Wei Secondary School had also been affected. That school produced one of the best performing students and I visited it sometimes back. The causative effect of flooding is clear in everybody’s mind. The deaths were as a result of geophysical effects. The mudslides swept away houses and habitation. Help was not forthcoming because those people are remotely located. The County Government of West Pokot has no capacity to deal with that kind of emergency because it was on a higher scale. I commend the Government because it deployed officers of the armed forces and other security organs. I also thank the humanitarian agencies who dealt with the problem. We empathise with the families, but what else can we do as a nation to avoid such things from happening in future? Climate change has been a story and I remember negotiating the Convention Climate Change Framework when I was the United Nations (UN) Environment Ambassador. We went to Paris to get the Paris Convention and discussed the mitigating factors that are required to deal with such emergencies. We know that there will be flooding, earthquakes and flash floods because of climate change. Therefore, we should have mitigating factors. One mitigating factor is having a plan between the national Government and the county governments and the focus should be on areas that are prone to flooding. We should also plant vegetation along the slopes so as to reduce the intensity of flooding that goes downstream. We should also construct water ways to direct the water to other places. Flooding is not a strange thing in areas like Wajir and Marsabit counties. I know that because I have worked in Wajir. That place is a savannah and it gets flooded everywhere. What worries me is the epidemic that emerges after the floods such as waterborne diseases as a result of shallow pit latrines in those areas."
}