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{
    "id": 1007139,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1007139/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 113,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba South, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. John Mbadi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to this Petition. I want to thank the Member for Lang’ata for bringing this Petition to the House. We do not agree on many things, but on this, we are together. I hope the Executive is listening and watching what we are discussing this afternoon. And I hope the President of the Republic of Kenya is watching. Mistakes could have been made. And these mistakes could have been made probably in 1998 or earlier, in terms of excising this forest and allowing human habitation. But once a Government has already de-gazetted a forest and allowed people to settle, buy property and allowed the property to change hands, another Government cannot come and claim that previous Governments acted illegally. That was also a Government. The Executive needs to realise that what almost brought the American economy to its knees was the issue of property. We should not play with the sanctity of titles. Either a title is valid or it is not valid. We cannot have two ways. We want to tell this CS that process must be followed. If you look at Article 70 of the Constitution on enforcement of environmental rights, if you allege that a right to enjoyment of environmental rights has been violated, you need to go to court to get an order. It does not say that a CS is exempted from this provision. If the CS feels that the law has been violated, the best thing to do is to go to court, get an order and then he can evict the people. But you cannot threaten thousands of Kenyans who live there. This is something that this House should not allow. I expect this Committee to expeditiously deal with this matter and bring a report here, so that we can tell the CS that he does not own this country. He may be doing the right thing, but he is doing it the wrong way. Let him look for the best way to conserve our forests, but not to render people destitute, landless and homeless. It is not acceptable. I heard him saying that even current Members of Parliament own houses there as if it is a crime to own a house in that place. People were selling and buying. I do not own a house there. I do not have a relative who owns any house there, but I am a Kenyan. I am a Member of the National Assembly and I speak on behalf of the people of Kenya. You cannot joke around with title deeds unless those title deeds are irregularly procured. But they were not. The forest was de-gazetted by Lotodo, who was a Minister like him, in 1998. He would want his decision today to be respected 10, 20 or 30 years to come. We do not want anarchy in this country. I thought he was a gentleman, but the way he talks shows otherwise. How can you say that you will release animals and threaten Kenyans that you will kill them? Are you a terrorist? What kind of a CS is he? Only terrorists can talk like that. I have never seen any human being so un-civilised. A lawyer of his repute is telling 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."
}