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{
    "id": 649514,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/649514/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 174,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ababu",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 108,
        "legal_name": "Ababu Tawfiq Pius Namwamba",
        "slug": "ababu-namwamba"
    },
    "content": ". If you are not careful when driving behind those vehicles, some of those wrappings will land on your windscreen and may even cause an accident. You see this in public transport and private vehicles. That is just our culture. It is our culture to soil, dirty and defile our environment. A few years ago, you remember a debate raged in the 10th Parliament about the Mau Forest. The whole issue was whether we should protect that critical water tower. It was an issue that became a hot potato for the 2013 General Election. It was being asked: Who evicted people from the Mau Forest? If you were fingered as having evicted people from the Mau Forest, then it was supposed to be politically costly for you for attempting to save that water tower. Politicians who sat in the 10th Parliament would go to the Mau Forest to chest-thump and tell the people that they saved them from eviction from the Mau Forest. We politicised a critical environmental issue and lost an opportunity to send a clear message that when it comes to protecting the environment, there are no compromises. We either do it or we shall pay a heavy price. I am very excited that we are making a critical decision to start a re-orientation of our thinking, approach and culture, when it comes to the environment. I am happy that the day set aside is a Thursday and not a Saturday as had initially been proposed. Thursday is a key working day and it is important that this happens on such a day. This task must become integral and part of the crucial critical tasks of all of us as a nation. On a Thursday, we want to see President Uhuru Kenyatta in the style made popular by the former Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings, putting on his overall and gloves, taking a shovel, coming down from the hill up behind us to the streets of Nairobi and lead the people in a clean-up of this City. On that Thursday, we want to see all the 47 governors put aside all the responsibilities and lead their staff and families in cleaning the environment wherever they live. On that day, it will be very good if you will allow us to attend the session in overalls and gumboots so that you will lead us out of this Chamber to walk into the streets of Nairobi, Kibra or Mathare and clean the environment to demonstrate that we walk the walk. This is not just rhetoric. We are not just here passing Motions, run-of-the-mill and playing to the gallery. We are, indeed, committed to utilise that day to make our environment cleaner and healthier. We closed the week. We can look back on Thursday and be happy that that little hovel where you enjoy one for the road or the park, where you take your children for the weekend, will look a lot better because the previous day, you invested in making that place cleaner. This is a matter that will take an activity that can re-orient our thinking and re- culture our approach to the environment. Let this be a day on which to decisively and ruthlessly deal with those who have a tendency of polluting our environment. These should include people 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."
}