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{
"id": 1048295,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1048295/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Bondo, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Gideon Ochanda",
"speaker": {
"id": 1264,
"legal_name": "Gideon Ochanda Ogolla",
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. At the outset, I want to support the policy paper and the work of the Committee. We cannot gainsay the role of wildlife in this country and the kind of diversity that nature made us have as a people of this country. How we have not made this country a preferred destination internationally is really another matter because, in my view, this should be the preferred destination in the whole world. That is if you look at the diversity that we have in the wildlife. It is good that the Chair of the Committee is around. I want to raise two issues. There is a problem in terms of what we have as lakes and wetlands and how they are recognised internationally. I want to believe that the Chair needs to look at the issue of wetlands, rivers and lake ecosystems. There is recognition of how Kenya is a contracting party in what we call the Ramsar Convention. The Ramsar Convention recognises the international importance of wetlands, rivers and lakes. The most unfortunate thing in this is that Lake Victoria and Lake Turkana are absent, and those are the biggest lakes in this country. If you look at Lake Victoria, for example, I want to believe, if somebody took data, the number of hippos, crocodiles, snakes and even birds, if they were to be cumulatively looked into, I do not believe that there is no other water body or wetland system that would be compared to that of Lake Victoria. That is the case for Lake Turkana. If you look at recognition in terms of the size of the country, we only have Lake Nakuru, Lake Naivasha, Lake Bogoria, Lake Baringo and Lake Elementaita. That means that the entire Lake Victoria system is out. So, when this is out, it raises a number of questions. One, what are those wildlife officers doing in Siaya, Kisumu, Migori and Homa Bay? That is a big question that they must answer. Two, what is happening that we have all those number of hippos and the kind of conflict that we have had between the wildlife and the communities around the Lake? Who is really looking at this? About a month or two ago, I incurred debts in my constituency, arising from hippos and crocodiles. We cannot afford not to be listed as a site, if you look at the number of hippos that we have from Port Victoria through to the entire part of Bondo, Rarieda, Kisumu through to Homa Bay and Migori. If we are not listed as a site, the best that the Kenya Wildlife Service needs to do is to take those animals out of Lake Victoria. Two, if we are to be recognized or co-exist with the wildlife, the Committee needs to look at this, that we get an arrangement where the county government, the wildlife officers in those counties and the communities get to work together for purposes of promoting conservation in non- conservancy areas, or non-wildlife areas, such that Lake Victoria is listed as a site and we have a way of working together as stakeholders and that wildlife does not affect the communities and the economy of the area. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}