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{
    "id": 1091669,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1091669/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 76,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "After giving the directive that her murder should be investigated, the President should have gone further and gazetted the entire forest and barred any developer from going near Kiambu Forest. We know the biggest motivation is the price of land in this country. An acre of land in Nairobi City County right now is about US$4 million to US$5 million. When you think about that, anyone would have an interest in running in on anyone who comes their way, whether they are trying to preserve the environment for a future generation, they will be done away with. Again, I thank Sen. Halake. Sometimes when it comes to environmental issues, I become so emotive such that even names disappear from your head. My good friend and neighbour, the Senator for Bomet County, will attest to this. That, after all those activities in the Mau Forest, they are living in a good environment and it rains daily. Madam Temporary Speaker, we have to ask ourselves whether where the forest is the only place where people can live. This country is vast. We need to start creating other cities, hiking the prices of land in other cities and zero rating the prices of land in Nairobi City County so that people stop getting congested in Nairobi City County and end up killing someone who is fighting to preserve the environment. The effects of global warming are real. This year, Kenya was colder than the United States of America (USA), where I lived for 20 years. It even stopped me from wearing my traditional clothes because of global warming. So now, when we kill the people who are trying to preserve the environment, what are we doing? It is shameful. I hope that this Petition will not just be presented in this House, recommendations come out and no implementation. I beseech my friend, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mr. Kinoti, to move expeditiously and ensure that the people who plotted the murder of this environmentalist are brought to book. When this happened, all around the world, if you read the Guardian and the New York Times, they all talked about a world environmentalist being killed outside an animal park in Nairobi City County because we are trying to preserve it. I would like to thank the close to 20 conservation organizations that have come together to stand with Kenyans and through Sen. Halake, to ensure that this matter does not rest. We have to keep on talking. In fact, we will treat this matter like the Cable News Network (CNN). Whenever you watch something on CNN, it is repeated and they keep on reminding you. We need to keep on reminding people that we will not let this go. Those pictures are haunting us. When you see a lady sitting on an excavator trying to protect the environment, you ask yourself if some people think they are immortal. This is a wakeup call. Madam Temporary Speaker, I hope that the DCI followed the President’s directive that this matter must be investigated. Now that it has been brought to the Senate, we must put our foot on the ground to investigate. Further, we need to make sure that land--- In fact, this is why when some of us were talking about the issue of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI) and saying we should put a 10-kilometre radius and make it a buffer zone, we knew what we were talking about. We should now think about creating a two-to-five-kilometre radius of buffer zone so that no one attempts to live there."
}