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{
    "id": 615618,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/615618/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 210,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Abdalla",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 382,
        "legal_name": "Amina Ali Abdalla",
        "slug": "amina-abdalla"
    },
    "content": "become a habit to establish forest reserves so that you deny people from that region an opportunity to fully exploit their areas. As we speak, Madogo, Wayu and Bura towns are all forest reserves established in 2013. Those towns have been in existence since the early 1970s. We need to be very careful so that politically correct civil servants do not establish forests in that manner in future. We should not allow this Bill to allow them to do the same. I am very happy with the proposed establishment of a forest fund whose intention is to have monies set aside to promote conservation of forests, establish tree nurseries, promote community management of forests and provide vocational training for members of the public on the use of forest resources. This fund will, with the approval of the National Treasury, get some money that will be levied against import of products that can easily be produced in this country. We are importing a lot of furniture and yet, as I said before, Kenya has 150,000 acres of bamboo lying idle. Most of the furniture we import is made from bamboo. We also appreciate the fact that private tree growers are going to benefit from their idle land. If you want to plant eucalyptus trees, for example, you will need to invest for eight years without receiving much in return. With this new Bill, we can ask the National Treasury to exempt land owners who have put their land under trees from paying taxes and land rates until they start selling their products. Those are the areas that have been addressed in this Bill. We will propose many amendments relating to land tenure. We will also seek to improve the relationship between county governments and the national Government. Clause 20 of the Bill presents something that the House needs to think about. When a function is assigned to both the national Government and county governments, how does the county implementing national policy report back to the national Government or the Cabinet Secretary responsible for that resource? The proposal in this Bill is that the member of the County Executive Committee (CEC) responsible for forest matters should report to the CS. We will urge this House to reject that clause because it establishes an informal set-up of communication. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, a member of the County Executive Committee should not communicate formal implementation issues directly to a Cabinet Secretary. It should be with the approval of their respective county governments, so that we create some formality in terms of how the counties interact with the national Government. I want to say this on a light note. Many discussions about royalty sharing in mining and oil have been seen to be giving advantage to arid and semi-arid areas. I had hoped that there would be public input to the effect that incentives, resources or royalties from forests should be given to local communities. However, the component in this Bill is just saying that the Forest Association should be involved and they should have a percentage of the royalty given to communities and yet it is not strong enough. Since I do not own a forest and I do not come from a forest area, it is the responsibility of those of you who come from the Mau and the Cheranganys of this world to give us ideas on how benefit sharing should be included in this Bill. As of now, it is only stating it broadly and not going to the volatile details that you will witness when we will deal with petroleum and minerals. 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."
}