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{
    "id": 541969,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/541969/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 241,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": "I represent many Kenyans. My Constituency has seven habitable islands. Because of that, there are many Kenyans who come to my constituency to fish. Although it is a rural constituency, it is semi-cosmopolitan because of fishing. There are members of the Somali, Kisii, and Luhya communities and people from other parts of Luo-Nyanza, as well as members of the Kikuyu community, all of whom go there mainly to fish or supply various items to the fishing folks. I am happy because I have just come back from my constituency, where I was sharing ideas with some fishermen from Litare Beach in Rusinga Island on fishing and this Bill. They gave me their concerns. Even as I second, I know that in the Committee of the whole House, we will bring in the amendments we are working on. Unfortunately, because of other commitments, I had to leave early. I was chairing the Sub-Committee on Fisheries of our Committee. I will be bringing several amendments which have to do with the challenge that we have in terms of balancing between conservation and socio- economic needs. Unfortunately, this Bill leans very heavily on conservation at the expense of socio-economic needs. If you look at Clause 5 and the long title, you will realise that it is very heavy on conservation, which is not a bad thing; but we must also be alive to the fact that we are conserving for the sake of the fishing folk. We should not have a situation where the law is an end in itself, since it is made for man. If we make a law that is an end in itself, it will affect man and woman, and then it will not be making sense. The greatest tension in this law, which we have discussed a lot even with the Cabinet Secretaries, is the issue of the fishing ban period. There is usually a four-month period when fishermen are not allowed to fish. Eighty per cent of the population in the community I come from is made up of fishing folks. It is only two wards in my constituency which rely very heavily on agriculture. The rest of the wards rely heavily on fishing. They do not undertake any other activity; all they do is go to the lake and fish. When there is a ban, children do not go to school and there is no food. It is a very serious concern. I get more phone calls around this period. Ordinarily, I would get around 50 to 100 phone calls per day but during the ban season, I get about 400 calls per day because of the socio-economic needs. As much as I am concerned about conservation, being an environmentalist myself, we must also take into account the socio-economic needs of the local communities. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}