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{
    "id": 188232,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/188232/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 164,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Githae",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministry of Local Government",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 159,
        "legal_name": "Robinson Njeru Githae",
        "slug": "robinson-githae"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I rise to support this very important Motion. I commend the Mover, Mr. Kaino, for coming up with this very important Motion. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, in addition to supporting Cherangany Hills, we must support all the other water catchment areas, including Nandi Hills, Mt. Kenya, Kakamega, Aberdares and others that do not come to my mind straight away. One way in which we can sort out this problem is to enact a law, like the way the Nordic countries have done, including Sweden, Norway and the others. If you are not farming your land, then you must plant trees on that land. As a result of that, I think Norway has one of the largest forest covers. It is over 80 per cent. Here in Kenya, it is less than 5 per cent. This is below the recommended 10 per cent by the United Nations. So, it is important to protect all our water catchment areas. To start with, we need to fence off all the forests. This is because if the forest is not fenced off then we cannot blame people who do not know where the boundary is. Secondly, there seems to be a notion that there are some communities in this country that do not support the protection of forests. The truth could not be further than this. Those communities are saying that since their people are already in those forests, then if they are evicted, they should be given alternative resettlement areas. I think that should be the policy. Not only on forests, but even in slum areas. If we will evict people from slum areas, then we must show them an alternative place where they will settle, because they are human beings. They are Kenyans. It is not their mistake. Some of them were sold that land by the so-called land-grabbers and speculators who grabbed that land. Lastly, the former President had very good intentions of settling the landless. But a few officials from the Ministry of Lands and Provincial Administration misused this opportunity. Instead of settling the landless, they allocated themselves the land. These are the problems that we are having. So, if we could begin by fencing off all the water catchment areas---"
}