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{
    "id": 530625,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/530625/?format=api",
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    "content": "of trees and rebuilding of homes. We, as Parliament, may have to vote money to obligate the national Government to fence off all public forests so that there is no pretense that people do not know where the forest starts and where it ends. We have a similar case in Mt. Elgon. I encourage the national Government that the destroyed forests of Mt. Elgon in both Trans Nzoia and Bungoma Counties need to be restored. We want to see a situation where the environment is brought back to what it used to be. When we were growing up in Bungoma County, you could not go for more than 2 kilometres without crossing a permanent stream that flowed from January to December. Today, even those we used to call rivers, now flow for only half the year. As soon as the rains stop, they dry up because the water tower that is Mt. Elgon has been completely destroyed. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I was frightened to read that the criminals that have been killing elephants in Tsavo and other parts of Kenya have now reached Mt. Elgon. In my own village of Chwele, people were arrested with elephant tusks which had been obtained from the destruction of elephants in Mt. Elgon. We need to strengthen the law because this is our national heritage. We should not let criminals roam from wherever; whether they are from Somalia or within Kenya to come and destroy our heritage. Maasai Mara has been one of the principal marketing tools of this country. Anywhere you go, when you say you have come from Kenya you are asked: “Is that where the Mara is?” If Mara River dried up because of the activities in the Mau Forest, that will be disastrous for this country. One other thing I want to mention is the reckless manner in which our farming activities are carried out; the use of pesticides and the use of chemicals. We want to see the environmental authorities check the alkaline content of fertilizer so that we do not continue destroying our soils by using fertilizers that are not properly certified to be user friendly on our farms. I know we have been encouraging organic farming, but how much farm yard manure can you generate to put on a large scale farm? What we need is to have a situation where whatever fertilizers we use are tested so that they enhance the presence of fertility in our soils instead of degrading the soils. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the Bill also sets up a national environmental complaints committee. I would want to see that this committee remains national with jurisdiction through counties so that we also do not waste public resources to set up complaints committees in every county. A single national environmental complaints committee, properly structured, properly equipped can handle environmental complaints across the country by, maybe, having one or two small field offices in counties and giving them days in which they can go and listen to problems arising out of environmental management. More importantly is the issue of planning because part of the conservation of the environment must go hand in hand in with planning. If you look at the mushrooming small towns, whether you are talking of Burnt Forest, Chwele in my county, Kutus, Khayega, Kyumvi in distinguished Sen. Muthama’s county or Ugunja in Ugenya, they are all growing as rural slums. There is no planning, there are no facilities and anybody who wakes up as a flip load stands up and starts building. You find that some of those The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}