" We shall testify within our constituencies to the situation ", said British Member of Parliament John Austin, on behalf of the delegation of legislators returning from the north-eastern province of Garissa, Kenya, in May 2006, on the occasion of the 114th IPU Assembly in Nairobi.
The IPU Assembly was held in Nairobi against a backdrop of torrential rain. In contrast, the nomadic populations of the north-eastern part of the country were enduring their third successive year of drought.
A group of parliamentarians from donor countries joined the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF and her staff on a flight to Garissa to see for themselves some of the effects of the crisis. On their arrival the provincial governor briefed them on the situation before they visited the general hospital. The hospital, which is under-staffed and ill-equipped, was struggling to cope with the influx of patients suffering the effects of malnutrition. Particularly distressing was the sight of infants in the paediatric ward fighting for their lives, cradled in the arms of women who, in many cases, were not their mothers but their grandmothers, who had continued caring for them after the death of their mothers.
The group then traversed parched scrubland to see an emergency feeding center in action. After that, it visited a grain distribution post where people were coming in on foot from many miles away to collect food.
As John Austin, MP, reported to the Assembly, " it would not have been right to visit Nairobi without seeing the suffering being endured in other parts of the country ", Nor was it right that African nurses cared for so many patients in European hospitals when there was a dearth of nursing skills in Africa, or that African vegetables and fruits were in abundant supply in the North when people were starving in the countries of origin.
The parliamentarians pledged to take action with their parliaments and governments to try to expedite assistance to the drought-stricken areas. They also agreed that such visits should become a more regular feature of IPU Assemblies.
2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai:
"Legislators should make laws that protect the environment rather than do politics with resources"
Taking the floor at the 114th IPU Assembly, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Member of the Kenyan Parliament, Prof. Wangari Maathai, said that the environment must be protected. "As parliamentarians, we should adopt laws that protect the environment rather than do politics with our resources. It is one thing to make statements, but it is another thing to demonstrate by action. Action is what will make the difference. We can make all the laws we want. It is what we do that makes a difference. Sometimes, there is a desire to protect the environment, but there are also political interests", said the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner, who is also the Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem.
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