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{
    "id": 1516283,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1516283/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 182,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Maanzo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13589,
        "legal_name": "Maanzo Daniel Kitonga",
        "slug": "maanzo-daniel-kitonga"
    },
    "content": "which grows naturally in dry areas, even when you plant when the rains are insufficient, they still grow because it also naturally with little to no rain. Those who have done it have managed to recover the forest and have an organised forest cover of indigenous trees that grow naturally in that area and are very suitable for commercial purposes because that particular tree, the Mukau in Makueni County is ideal for timber and also stays leafy. It can also be eaten by animals when there is insufficient food. Parts of the branches are a delicacy to goats. Therefore, the county governments have a lot of land in trust. The water towers in many parts of the country are under the county governments, and these are the ones that should be planted accordingly so that all those beautiful rivers that are running dry, can have trees that grow there naturally. Unless the county government takes this as a responsibility, it may not be well coordinated by the national Government. Therefore, the county government should identify these areas and afforest them. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I was at the National Assembly and after the new Constitution, there was a transition. There was one of the water towers in my village which had been misused for some time. I took the initiative to employ one of the persons in the office of Member of Parliament to particularly take care of the forest issue. The National Government Constituency Development Fund (NG-CDF), has either one or two per cent for environment conservation. We managed to keep trees by naturally keeping people away from cutting trees. The natural bushes grew, the coverage became very good, and the ecosystem rebalanced afresh. I believe that now the county government can employ several people because not every single Member of Parliament of the National Assembly will have enough money to manage the conservation. In fact, that two percent is used to do gabions, and if you do as many gabions as possible in the rivers, you also need to have some water to have seedling areas, and then you can grow trees for timber and environmental conservation. There is also another area of environmental conservation that has come up recently. In a mango or citrus growing area like Makueni, we are now able to have mango trees as forests and at the same time do commercial activity. We are processing the mangoes to mango juice. Many Kenyans come down to Makueni to buy mangoes for export and for commercial purposes. That is best done by the county governments if we are going to plant fruit growing trees as forests and purposes of environmental conservation. This will ensure that there is tree coverage and the environment is taken care of and at the same time commercial activities takes place. At times, it needs protection from harmful insects by spraying and making sure that the fruit is taken care of and we have come up with many of that. Another area that is very important, which we will be discussing in the House later is the new Cooperatives Act. Tree growing and environmental conservation can also be done through cooperatives in the countryside. The moment you organise a cooperative, you involve the people better, the purpose is set and they will have targets. The cooperatives are also devolved and working under the county government. That is another area we should look at because laws can work together. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard and AudioServices, Senate."
}