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"id": 255314,
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"speaker_name": "Prof. Maathai",
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"legal_name": "Wangari Muta Maathai",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to thank His Excellency the President, for his excellent Address. I want to remember the fact that we had and still have a prolonged drought in this country. Many of our people and animals have died. Many of us were involved in mobilising support in the form of food for the affected people. We also had animals trekking long distances and ending up in forests in the Central region, in an effort to survive. I want to believe that, that drought taught us something. I am encouraged by the fact that many hon. Members have told me they want to do active tree planting in their respective areas. That is the only way to save our people and manage our environment. There is an hon. Member who spoke earlier and said that animals were moving to the Central region and had to enter Mount Kenya because there was nowhere else to go. Let us remind ourselves that two-thirds of this country is arid, semi-arid and desert. That is a lot of land which is almost wasted because it is virtually desert and very unproductive, as far as subsistence agriculture is concerned, or even for grazing. However, I have never understood why we do not invest in rehabilitation of the arid and semi-arid areas. I do not understand why we do not harvest rain water. Rains finally came, and they are still coming. Most of the water, after it rains, runs downstream, getting to the hydro-electric dams down the Tana River and to the lakes. This is almost ironical. People look at us and remember that a few months ago, we were begging for food. Now, the rains have come, yet we are not harvesting rain water. That does not make sense. Sometimes, I wonder what it will take for us to realise that rain water is a major resource that should be harvested. We also saw our people getting animals into forests and also trying to cultivate there. Forests are some of the few areas which are still wet and fertile. But, if we destroy the remaining forests, we will be literally killing ourselves. We should be working towards enhancing forests. People keep on saying that the shamba system is a good thing, but the shamba system is a bad thing. We should be trying to cultivate the two-thirds of our land, especially arid and semi-arid areas. We should make sure that on the one-third of our land which is arable, where we have most of our agricultural production, we protect the soil by making sure that we have terraces, benches, and trenches so that we can harvest rain water and prevent it from taking our soil. Our country is one of the richest in the world, and one of our best natural resource is the March 29, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 211 soil. However, it seems as if we are determined to do everything possible to make it disappear, for instance, in the way we make the roads. I see the bulldozers going up the roads and tearing the sides and when the rain comes, the soil is carried down into the streams. I wonder why we prefer to have exposed soil, making it possible for the rain and wind to take it away and when we are faced by drought, we go round the world begging for food from countries which grow their food only for six months, because in the rest of the months they experience winter. I want to emphasise the point on drought by encouraging hon. Members and commend them for the interest they have shown in protecting our environment. I am sure that the Ministry of Environment and Natural resources and the organisations it is associated with, will do anything to support us. I will do everything within the time I have, to support your efforts at the constituency level to protect our environment. It is the best thing we can do for ourselves. I want to say that as part of the Government, I get embarrassed sometimes when I see ourselves going into forests and evicting people as if they are foreigners in this country. We know those people are there. We watched them as they settled and allowed them to settle. Therefore, when we want to remove them, we have to remove them with compassion. We must put a human face to eviction. We cannot be seen to be burning people's property, simply to protect a forest which when you look at keenly, there is none because it was destroyed a long time ago. What we should do is to find a way of settling those people. I know that Mr. President is very concerned about settling squatters. We have to find land, settle those people, then re-engage in re- afforestation. In fact, we can use the same people to do re-afforestation. However, I get embarrassed when I see the Government moving into the forests to evict people in the name of protecting forests which are already destroyed, and making children cry because their houses are burning. Recently, I looked at Mount Kenya. Those who have seen Mount Kenya of late, know that there is very little ice left. The glacier has melted to an extent I have not seen before. That is the same situation on Mount Kilimanjaro. There was an article recently in the newspapers, that highlands have warmed up by 0.5 per cent. That, according to the author, was encouraging mosquitoes to move to the highlands and thrive there, bringing about the new phenomenon of highland malaria that has become quite frequent. When you look at the mountains and see the glaciers melting, we must consider ourselves endangered. Climate change is a reality. The barometer that is being used in this region is the melting of the ice on our mountains. So, we need to do everything we can to save the situation. Finally, I want to appeal to our people, especially those who formed the NARC Government and given the mandate in 2002, for forgiveness and reconciliation. I also appeal for us to be humble, for us to respect each other and rediscover the trust we had when we started, so that we can give ourselves a chance to give good leadership that our children and our grandchildren need. We have been observed both locally and internationally, and people are alarmed at how fast we lost the goodwill that Kenyans had given us. I think it is important for us to learn how to respect each other and accept dialogue. I am quite sure that at the end of dialogue, a sense of forgiveness and respect for each other is what will help us to restore the confidence and the good will Kenyans had for all of us. Therefore, as we move towards what appears to be a very unstable time, it is important to be careful about how we treat, talk to each other and talk about each other, and give each other the respect we deserve. We should understand that if we give each other respect, the public will also respect us. I know this is the appeal the President called us to practice. I want to call for a peaceful reconciliation in our country, especially among our leaders. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}