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{
    "id": 1091707,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1091707/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 114,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": " Madam Temporary Speaker, I was looking at the Forest Act and it sets out the conditions under which the Cabinet Secretary (CS) can gazette a particular area as a forest. It is not a unilateral decision like the Senator for Bungoma has said. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of times when areas are gazetted as forests, sometimes it is to create a basis for giving other people land. So, immediately it is gazetted, within three or four months, portions of that area are given to individuals. I suppose that this is what is happening in this particular incident where there is a huge population which has been gazetted as a forest. What they are trying to do in effect is because these people do not have title deeds, they might be created for particular persons in that area. I hope that this is not what is happening in this part of Bungoma. The forests were being mismanaged that is why it was required, under the Act, that in order to declare an area to be a forest or to be de-gazetted, there must be a process. That is participation of the people, the National Assembly and the Senate. I have been looking at those provisions. You will find that the participation and consideration of that decision by the Senate and the National Assembly is important. In the old days, people used to give chunks of forests to particular persons. I hope that Sen. Wetangula will take this further. This is because an area can only be gazetted to be a forest if it is un-alienated land. To many people, they say that it is alienated because it has a title deed. However, if it belongs to a community, it is alienated because there are people who are occupying the land. It belongs to the category of land which under the Constitution is community land which is alienated. Madam Temporary Speaker, the land belonging to the Maasai is not free land for anybody. It is alienated. The land that belongs to the Pokot and Samburu even if it has title deed, it is alienated. That is why even in the former Central Province, the Kikuyus lost a lot of land because they did not have title deeds. The white man came and just"
}