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{
    "id": 1223691,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1223691/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 208,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Okiya Omtatah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "cover in this country. One of the main problems with environment is failure by institutions like NEMA and others, to enforce the law. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we should also think about road reserves. We have very huge lands that are under road reserves. The state should decide to plant forests, so that all our roads and highways become avenues. Can you imagine driving from Mombasa on an avenue that is ringed by forests on both sides? It would really be an ennobling experience. The nebulous in this country would show, but where we are today, our roads are not considered worth being given some type of tree cover that can add to the beauty or scenery and also increase the tree cover in this country. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we have hills in this country and some are owned by individuals. Hills that at times cannot make viable agricultural enterprise. They have been invaded and some of them have been stripped off their tree cover. It would be prudent for our Government to come up with a plan to map our hills and also to do compulsory acquisition, where people have got private ownership property rights over it. Then, do a plan to populate them with trees, so that we can increase the tree cover in this country. I do not need to belabour the point. It has been stated that the meltdown in the environment is not sustainable. The solution is in tree cover and other practices. So, let us look at that. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when we come to the question of wetlands, I would like to raise the issue of Yala Swamp. It straddles two counties; Busia and Siaya. It is about 17,000 hectares or thereabout; 11,000 hectares are in Busia and only 6,000 are in Siaya. However, if you look at how that swamp has been dealt with, contracts with investors are signed in Siaya, and then they come across and mess up that swamp. Instead of engaging in farming activities that do not interfere with the swamp, they have done a lot of damage to that swamp. It is high time that the Government took action and intervened. The Government should help us get proper boundaries between Busia and Siaya, so that if Siaya wants to mess their side of the swamp, so be it, but let them not mess up the Busia side of the swamp. The people in Bunyala have been disadvantaged by the decisions on Yala Swamp that are made in Siaya. The big part of the swamp is now under water because the rivers that flow into Lake Victoria have silted. The silting is because of the improper agricultural activities upstream, where swamps have been drained and people are ploughing up the rivers. At the end of the day, there is a lot of erosion and siltation. Rivers have silted. When it rains, the water does not flow into the lake, but spreads into the land, to become the famous Bunyala floods. The Government needs to intervene because the County Government does not have the wherewithal to do anything about it. It requires the national Government to intervene and give us a scientific solution. If it is drenching to open up waterways; it will help. They have clogged the waterways and since there are no roads, they use those rivers to access island. People in those areas can hardly access the islands. Their lives are really difficult. If the water way would be open, then we would have a lot of land liberated, livelihoods restored and quality of life of the people in Bunyala will be highly improved."
}