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{
    "id": 769744,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/769744/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 190,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Hulufo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13348,
        "legal_name": "Hassan Oda Hulufo",
        "slug": "hassan-oda-hulufo-2"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to contribute to this Motion. I would like to support the Motion. From the very start, I would like to say that trees are like lungs to our environment. We all appreciate what deforestation and destruction of trees in our water catchment has done to our nation. Our rivers, as various speakers before me have indicated, are drying up. Rivers which used to be permanent like Ewaso Nyiro North have become seasonal and it has worsened the impact of climate change and resultant drought on our people. I would like to thank the Mover of this Motion, Hon. Chepkut Chirchir. It is very timely. There exists funding stream which we can tap into. For example, under the National Government Constituencies Development Fund (NG-CDF) Act, the committees are allowed to use two per cent of NG-CDF for environmental issues. The 11th Parliament enacted Forest Conservation and Management Act which has a provision for establishing forest conservation and management trust fund. I am sure that if as Parliament we will allocate enough resources to that fund, implementing the initiative for compulsory planting of trees in our schools will be very easy. The Forest Conservation and Management Act, Section 21 outlines the role of county governments in environmental conservation. Part b, obligates or makes it compulsory somehow for the county governments to contribute towards afforestation activities. Section 37 requires our county governments to actually make it compulsory for those companies which are involved in establishment of estates to set aside five per cent of their land as greening zones. In as much as we say this Motion is important, we already have existing laws which enable adequate implementation of planting of these trees. If you look at our Constitution, which we promulgated in 2010, we set for ourselves a target of 10 per cent of our landmass to be under forest cover. Unfortunately, as we speak, it is only 1.7 per cent of our land mass which is under protected forests. Therefore, for us to achieve our goal of 10 per cent forest cover as a nation, we have to make sure that we enforce this. Once the committee responsible is set up, they should follow up with the Kenya Forest Service after allocating them adequate resources. Sometimes we blame Government institutions which are mandated to carry out certain functions when we do not 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."
}