Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 35460,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/35460/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 77,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mbadi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, sometimes I wonder and I keep on asking myself so many questions as to why this Government hates my people. I say that because this Government allowed the Uganda Government to take Migingo Island which is in my constituency. As if that is not enough, now they are annexing land and evicting my people. About 8,000 people are affected. There are also six schools in the area. The Minister is misinformed. He comes and says: “Just pockets”. About 2,700 hectares of land added to 4,800 is almost three quarters of the current forest. Where are you getting that land? You are getting it from my people! I do not know why this Government is doing this, but I hope the Minister, who is my friend and who knows this area very well, having worked there, will sympathize and empathize with the plight of the people of Gwassi. The area is very hilly. The Minister has talked about complaints from the residents of Gwassi. He has also talked about the county council and the stakeholders. I wonder who these are and where they held the meeting. Are there minutes? When was this meeting held, where the people of Gwassi decided that they needed more land to be added to the forest instead of preserving the forest which is there? Is there evidence that the people of Gwassi asked for additional forest? I wanted to table a map of the land which has been proposed to be annexed. There is a letter from the Gwassi Community Support Organization, which if the Minister reads and was in my position, he would feel pain. They are complaining of an NGO which wrote to the Minister. The NGO is looking for funding elsewhere and using the plight of my people to get that funding on the pretext that they are protecting forests. How can the Minister rely on a letter from Mrs. Odongo, just one lady, in the whole constituency and claim that the people of Gwassi have petitioned him? I am the Member of Parliament for the area. If the majority of my people wanted this decision to be made, would I be foolish to question it in this House? Mr. Minister, my question is: Could you provide evidence that the Gwassi people wanted people to be evicted, so that more land could be added to the already gazetted 4,800 hectares?"
}