Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 616810,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/616810/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 127,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Lentoimaga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2756,
        "legal_name": "Alois Musa Lentoimaga",
        "slug": "alois-musa-lentoimaga"
    },
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I support this Bill because it is very important. As my colleagues have said, forest covers are important for our livelihoods because they provide water. Most of the water towers in this country originate from the forests. The forest cover encourages rain. It provides food and many other issues that relate to our lives. For a long time especially in Samburu North, we have had one of the biggest indigenous forests in our mountains. We have Nyiro Mountain, Ndoto mountains and the rocky plateau which has the biggest forest cover in that region. It is indigenous. If you want to go and look for the very rare species of trees, you can find them in those areas especially the Red Cedar. They are very important species of trees. In fact, people covet those kinds of hard wood. In many ways, some loggers illegally go there and extract those trees and take them out of Samburu because of lack of proper protection by the Ministry of Environment. This particular forest has been gazetted for a long time. The last time it was gazetted was during the colonial time in early 1900. No review has ever been done since that time. With the challenges of insecurity, many of our people for the last 25 years have run away because they are displaced from their residential areas. They run for safety to some of these mountains. It is natural all over the world that when a war breaks out, people go to safe havens like high mountains or places that are fortified. So, in my constituency, more than 4,000 families have run to these areas that are protected. The problem is, we are not sure of the boundary. The colonial government put the boundaries and no review has ever been done. To make it worse, there is very little involvement of the local people in the protection of forest. The Samburus see forest officers as aliens. They see them as threats to their lives because every time, they issue threats of eviction yet we are not sure about the boundary. This Bill is good because Part IV of it provides for review of boundaries. These Kenyans have lost their livelihoods. They do not have a place to cultivate, build a hospital or school. They are totally in a deplorable situation. So, as I support this Bill during the Committee of the whole House stage, I will bring very strong amendments to ensure that we help to determine the boundaries. We are not saying that we are going to destroy the forests but I am saying we need to allow Kenyans to participate fully and transparently on the issue of management and conservation of forests so that we are able to protect, nurture and to make sure that forests grow even bigger. As I said, forests are part of our livelihood and we want to preserve them. In fact, 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."
}