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{
    "id": 1223606,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1223606/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 123,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Onyonka",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13592,
        "legal_name": "Onyonka Richard Momoima",
        "slug": "onyonka-richard-momoima"
    },
    "content": "At the same time, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I would like to welcome the students and teachers who have come to see what is in the Senate. I am happy that they came when we are “normal”. If they had come here two or three days ago, they would have thought that this House, or Parliament for that matter, is a place where we constantly have adversarial relationships and make noise at each other. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I would like to contribute to this Motion for the simple reason which everybody has stated. Debate on environment is a current one. The reason for that is that if you look at what is happening, and many of my colleagues have discussed it, it has been abnormally hot for the past one month. The rains we expected to start last month did not come. Everybody is relieved that it is now raining in Nairobi. I come from Kisii County. Normally the rains start around January to March. However, it is only last week that the rains started falling and it was exciting. The truth is, even when we have challenges about what our environment has become, to a large extent, we need to look at the options available. What is the Government policy? I wish Sen. Cherarkey and the Senate Majority Leader were here. As we know, most of the forest cover is found in our county governments, beginning from Kwale and Kilifi up to Taita Taveta, the Rift Valley, Nakuru, Kisii, Trans Nzoia where we have Kitale and the four counties of Nyanza. You will realize that the forest cover in Nyanza has been quite high. In Kisii County, the forest cover is reasonably high. If you arrive in Kisii, you will be shocked because the whole place looks green. The only problem is that we have planted the wrong trees; the blue gum. Many technocrats and experts on environmental issues have been advising people to uproot those trees and plant those that do not consume a lot of water because the blue gum has a problem. In fact, several leaders have tried to do that but they started solving this problem from the wrong end. In Kisii, growing blue gum trees is an economic activity. It is not perceived as a forest maintenance or sustenance activity because people plant trees which take about five years to grow. If one has about 60 trees and every tree is sold for Kshs10,000, in 10 years, they will have about Kshs600,000. That is why when you tell a Kisii to cut down blue gum trees and plant eucalyptus trees, they will tell you to go to hell. There is a team that has been selected and I believe the names will be approved so that they are appointed. I hope they will come up with solutions that are locally based,"
}