Developed countries should lead humanitarian efforts to mitigate the effects of drought and famine instead of paying lip service, Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro
Speaking in Dhaka, Bangladesh, during the
Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, Ethuro said the nations should take responsibility as they emit the largest amounts of greenhouse gases which have resulted in climate change.
“The responsibilities of industrialised nations are brought into focus: they should mitigate climate change and support vulnerable countries in adapting to the negative impacts of climate change, especially food security,” he said.
Ethuro decried the world's slow response to the crises in Kenya, South Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Uganda. Some 12.8 million people in these countries are facing the threat of starvation due to drought and famine.
He noted the situations in East Africa and the Horn of Africa pose serious threats to human dignity, regional peace, security and stability.
The Speaker thanked the UN for its efforts but urged the intergovernmental organisation and developed nations to commit resources to critically affected areas in the Horn of Africa.
He said they should also set aside resources for long-term development assistance.
Ethuro noted that the countries committed to offer humanitarian support
during the Parliamentary Forum at the 2nd High Level Meeting of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation (GPECD) held in Kenya in November 2016.
He said a similar promise was made in March during the
Regional Seminar on Sustainable Development Goals for the Parliaments of Sub-Saharan Africa held in Uganda.
Other members of Kenya’s delegation participating in IPU committees include David Pkosing (Pokot South), Susan Musyoka (Machakos woman representative), Jude Njomo (Kiambu), Michael Onyura (Butula) and Leonard Sang (Buret)
The 136th General Assembly of the IPUwas inaugurated on Saturday and will end on Wednesday.
The United Nationals warned last December that Kenya needed to brace itself for worsening drought in 2017.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said people and animals' lives were at risk because they had not had a chance to recover from drought in 2014 as rains were also poor in 2015 and 2016.
In March, the UN appealed for Sh17 billion from its partners to assist more than three million residents in Northern Kenya facing starvation.
The amount was to complement government’s ongoing drought mitigation efforts in the at least 23 counties hard hit by adverse drought.
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President Uhuru Kenyatta and asked all local and international stakeholders to support the government by up-scaling drought mitigation programmes.