HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, POST, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"count": 1608389,
"next": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=api&page=438",
"previous": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/?format=api&page=436",
"results": [
{
"id": 4361,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4361/?format=api",
"text_counter": 242,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
},
"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, hon. Odhiambo-Mabona is concerned about the plight of people who have been affected by floods in Lambwe Valley. I want the hon. Member to know that it is not just the residents of Lambwe Valley who have been affected by floods. There are quite a number of people in other parts of the country who have been affected. In fact, Coast is worst hit. The other parts are in North Eastern, Nyando, Eastern and so on. The Government is doing what it can within its ability to deal with this. We have a Disaster Response Centre. I have even the telephone numbers which I can give to the hon. Member so that people can call when they need emergency assistance. This is a national matter and not an isolated incident. Therefore, the response is scattered and cannot be as effective as other ordinary situations. Hon. Mututho, of course, is concerned about the kerosene ban. I want him to know that we have not yet totally banned the use of kerosene. We are just encouraging people to move away from the use of Kerosene to other methods of lighting. Here we are recommending solar lamps which are being made available at an affordable price to people in a larger scale. This is more cost effective. The solar lamps are brighter than the kerosene powered candles and ultimately, cheaper in cost. We have not yet banned the use of kerosene as such."
},
{
"id": 4362,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4362/?format=api",
"text_counter": 243,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to hon. Kigen’s question, we have a very ambitious afforestation programme being rolled out by the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, together with the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources. We know that to increase our forest cover, we need to plant many trees. At Independence, the forest cover in our country was 12 per cent. It has dropped from 12 per cent to now 1.7 per cent. We have a programme to increase that. It requires that we plant 7.6 billion trees in order to increase the forest cover to 10 per cent. It requires that a lot of trees are planted on an annual basis. The Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources has worked out details of what is required to be done as this programme is being rolled out through secondary and primary schools all over the country. Tree seedlings are also being made available. So we should differentiate between tree planting and tree growing. In the past, there has been a lot of exercise of tree planting, but once planted, they were neglected and they never grew. Now we are saying that if a tree is planted, it must be nurtured until it reaches a level where it can now grow sustainably. The programme is being rolled out by the Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources jointly with the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife. The Member also wanted to know why we have not yet stopped charcoal burning. Charcoal burning has been stopped, but we have not yet stopped the use of charcoal and that is what is encouraging a lot of illegal use of charcoal. We are not yet in a position to completely substitute the use of charcoal generally in the country because we have not put in place the infrastructure for the alternative source of energy for use by the people, particularly in the rural areas. That is what is being planned. For example, making the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) available to rural households at a price that is affordable and also generating bio-fuels. We need to introduce the technology of generating bio- fuels for the use of the people using things like cow dung as a source of energy. That is being advanced and encouraged by several institutions in the country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to urge the Members of this House to help the Government in fighting charcoal burning. When we were talking about the Mau here, Members were not seeing what we are seeing; that if we have people living deep in the forest, they cannot eat there unless they cook and for them to cook in the forest, they must cut down the trees. If they cut down the trees, they destroy the environment. That is why we were saying that we should get people out of the Mau because for them to continue living there, they are destroying the environment."
},
{
"id": 4363,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4363/?format=api",
"text_counter": 244,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Kigen",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 44,
"legal_name": "Luka Kipkorir Kigen",
"slug": "luka-kigen"
},
"content": "On a point of order, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. If you consider what the Prime Minister has said in terms of stoppage of charcoal burning, he is appealing to the Members to assist the Government to stop charcoal burning. The major culprit is an arm of the Government, namely, the police. On the road, they allow a lot of charcoal to be transported. Is it in order for the Prime Minister to ask us to assist the Government to stop charcoal burning, yet the Government facilitates it?"
},
{
"id": 4364,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4364/?format=api",
"text_counter": 245,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
},
"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, to my knowledge, the police do not burn charcoal. Therefore, I do not see how the police can really end up being charcoal vendors. The police can arrest people who are destroying forests. That is what the Member should be talking about. We are trying to enhance the capacity of law enforcement agencies in order to deal with this issue of illegal logging in the country. Hon. Eseli asked two questions. One is about the hydro dams. He said that the dams have recharged, yet electricity bills have not gone down. It does not just operate that way, that now that the hydro dams have recharged, therefore, bills go down. We have been using the oil powered generators for quite some time and there is always a transition to lower prices. I look forward to a period over the next few weeks or so when we hope that the Kenya Power Company will revise the prices downwards. The Member also said that in this period, the Government should provide more funds to the Constituency Roads Committees (CRCs) in order to repair the roads. This is a very expensive exercise because when the El Nino comes and there are floods, they destroy the infrastructure. They wash away the roads and sometimes they go away with bridges and we have to start again. Some of these are not in the Budget. There is no budgetary provision for bridges that were going to be washed by floods. So, it is unfortunate but the Ministry of Roads has got some contingency funds in its Budget that we can use to carry out emergency repairs of roads and bridges that are washed by the floods."
},
{
"id": 4365,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4365/?format=api",
"text_counter": 246,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
},
"content": "That equally applies to hon. Chachu. He said that the roads in northern Kenya are in a very terrible state. I agree with him because likewise, they have experienced very heavy rains. Some parts of Kenya, like northern Kenya, have had more than 200 per cent rain more than what they usually get around this period. I wish we had, by this time constructed dams which would have enabled us to harvest the heavy rains that we have received around this period. It would help us when the La Nina comes, which we know will come sometimes next year, to carry out irrigation and also for our livestock. We know that just about a few months ago, we were talking about severe drought. All these areas were suffering from severe drought and a lot of livestock was lost during that drought period yet now there is too much water. We have now realized that this climate change phenomenon is permanent. It is going to be with us. That is why we need to win our population that live in some of these areas from over dependence on pastoralism to more sedentary systems of existence. It has now become very apparent that pastoralism as we have known it traditionally for generations and generations, has become unsustainable in the light of climate change. When the drought comes, pasture and water disappear and livestock die. When the rains come, you need to do restocking. That becomes a very expensive exercise."
},
{
"id": 4366,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4366/?format=api",
"text_counter": 247,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Chachu",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 18,
"legal_name": "Francis Chachu Ganya",
"slug": "francis-ganya"
},
"content": "On a point of order, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Is the Prime Minister in order to say that pastoralism, as we know it, is unviable when it is the only system known to man to have survived in extreme weather conditions over time? What empirical evidence does he have to state that, that source of livelihood in that extreme weather condition is not viable when it has sustained man for centuries?"
},
{
"id": 4367,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4367/?format=api",
"text_counter": 248,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
},
"content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I do not understand what the hon. Member is disagreeing with. I am talking out of concern for very many of our people who live in that area. This is an issue that we have also discussed with our other neighbours. Ethiopia next door is doing exactly what we are talking about here. What is happening is that when La Nina comes, pasture disappears. Livestock depend on pasture. You cannot keep cows when there is no grass. Pastoralists usually wander with their livestock from place to place in search of pasture and water. When water and pasture disappear, the livelihood of pastoralists becomes unsustainable."
},
{
"id": 4368,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4368/?format=api",
"text_counter": 249,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Raila",
"speaker_title": "The Prime Minister",
"speaker": {
"id": 195,
"legal_name": "Raila Amolo Odinga",
"slug": "raila-odinga"
},
"content": "This is now being improved scientifically all over the world. This is a subject that has been discussed at international forums. What I am talking about is a recommendation coming out of international forums by experts in this field. The process of restocking year in, year out becomes unsustainable. That is the reason as to why we are going to hold a major seminar, so that we can begin to talk about how we can make this area green. What we call Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) is so similar to what we have in Israel. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, only 40 per cent of the land in Israel is ASAL. Sixty per cent of the land there is pure desert, but they have been able to turn the whole of that desert green and produce sufficient food for their people through irrigation. Israel is also water scarce. So, they do water desalination before they use it for irrigation. Kenya is not water scarce. We have sufficient water. We can pipe this water to areas we call ASALs and use it to carry out irrigation in those areas. That is why I am talking about weaning our people from overdependence on pastoralism to a more sedentary system of life. Hon. Njuguna talked about logging. Logging in this country has been banned but there are criminals who continue to do logging illegally. We must differentiate between plantation forests, which are called “commercial forests” from our indigenous forests. Commercial forests are planted and their trees have a limited lifespan. When they mature, they need to be harvested and then replanting is done. Sometimes you see lorries carrying logs from the commercial plantations. That is not illegal. It has been formally allowed by the Government. We have totally banned logging or cutting of indigenous forests, but there are criminals who continue to do illegal logging. This is not formally allowed by the Government. We know that sometimes there is collusion with Government officers who act criminally, and we have issued instructions that action be taken against those officers. Thank you, Mr. temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir."
},
{
"id": 4369,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4369/?format=api",
"text_counter": 250,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Imanyara",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Deputy Speaker",
"speaker": {
"id": 22,
"legal_name": "Gitobu Imanyara",
"slug": "gitobu-imanyara"
},
"content": " Next Order."
},
{
"id": 4370,
"url": "http://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/4370/?format=api",
"text_counter": 251,
"type": "heading",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE HOUSE"
}
]
}