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{
    "id": 406001,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/406001/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 104,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Lati",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2762,
        "legal_name": "Jonathan Lelelit Lati",
        "slug": "jonathan-lelelit-lati"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is also another aspect of compensation. If we were in the USA today, I think we can borrow something--- I am using this analogy of the USA drug trade because today, in the USA, if you are caught having a drug and being a consumer of a certain drug, the punishment is so distinct from being a drug dealer. In this Bill, there is no separation of our people who kill wildlife because they get into trouble along the way when they are taking care of their livestock. Those people are actually not like the Chinese dealers who take ivory to China. I think the punishment should be different. This is because today, if you ask a Chinese dealer to give you Kshs.10 million because you got him at the airport taking ivory to the Far East, to him Kshs10 million is very little. But if you get one of my brothers who has killed an elephant because he had trouble with his livestock, and you ask him to pay Kshs10 million, that money is just too much. I think we need to separate the people who get into trouble with wildlife and the dealers in trophies; the people who do a lot of damage to our wildlife. The other aspect I looked at in this Bill is that it seems to give too much power to the Cabinet Secretary. If you allow the Cabinet Secretary to declare certain areas national parks, we will have problems. I know that there is a section that says that it is fine as long as he consults the community. There are grey areas when you start talking about just consulting communities. I think we need to do something to make sure that our national parks exist. We need to pass a law to that effect. The Cabinet Secretary should not wake up one day and decide that some part of Samburu County should be a national park. The other thing I did not find very clear in this Bill, which worries me a lot, is the issue of national parks and national reserves. As you know, revenue from national parks comes to the national Government. But in places where we have national reserves, communities have benefited a lot. A good example is the Maasai Mara and Samburu National Reserves in Kenya. We need to clearly define that national reserves are the preserve of the counties where those national reserves exist so that we do not lump them with the national parks and give so much discretionary powers to the Cabinet Secretary just to do anything and probably take away revenue from communities that are so used to getting their revenue from wildlife. Otherwise, if those small things are amended in this Bill, I think we have a comprehensive Bill to cater for the wildlife of our country. We will have an opportunity to improve our economy because you know wildlife and tourism play a very big role in the expansion of our country’s economy. I support the Bill and I know we have a very able Chairlady. I think she will take care of some of the gaps, particularly those which arise out of our people being herders and livestock keepers. We should not punish them for living next to the wildlife and we should not create unnecessary friction between those people and the wildlife. They have lived with this wildlife for so many generations and I think the reason why we have wildlife today in Kenya is because they have lived harmoniously. We need to create a situation where they live with wildlife harmoniously and our wildlife is kept well and our people are also not put in jails around the country."
}