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{
    "id": 616820,
    "url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/616820/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 137,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "I want to urge the Government to set up enough resources to employ enough forest guards to protect our forests and to plant trees. There is no need to have a forest without trees. Trees are cut down, people set up fires and no one takes action. I am happy because this Bill is proposing to have research institutions to do research on specific species of trees that are conducive for each area and which can grow quickly in each and every region. I am equally happy that we are setting up a Forest Conservation and Management Trust Fund, but I am afraid corruption in this country is so much that this fund will end up being misused. It may not achieve its intended objective. Unless we are assured that the monies that we will be voting to this Forest Conservation and Management Trust Fund will be put to good use, it is as good as throwing money to waste. Hon. Deputy Speaker, we need to be very clear on how this needs to be done. I am happy that it will be subjected to parliamentary approval, but we need to respect that procedure because it has been there. In fact, to gazette or degazette a forest, you need parliamentary approval. But you will find forest officers, instead of conserving the forests under their areas, they unilaterally, without any legal basis, try to increase forest cover without asking the stakeholders and Parliament as required. In 2006, just before I become the Member of Parliament for my area, forest officers invaded private property. They burnt peoples’ houses and property in a bid to evict them from their private land and yet, they had failed to protect the gazetted forest land. Up to now, there has been no compensation even after the forest guards accepted that they actually went overboard. In my Petition, there was the matter of looking into the compensation of the people who lost their property. That has been deliberately and technically left out even though the other part of the Petition, which is about clear demarcation of the forest, has been properly taken care of. I am a bit uncomfortable with Clause 35 of the Bill which talks about exchanging forests with private land. Even though it talks about the Cabinet Secretary doing that having followed some due process, which includes impact assessment, we have experienced situations where The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}