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{
    "id": 774610,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/774610/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 169,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ng’ongo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 110,
        "legal_name": "John Mbadi Ng'ong'o",
        "slug": "john-mbadi"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to support the Motion on Adoption of Sessional Paper No. 3 of 2017 on the National Policy on Climate Finance. I want to start by saying that, as Hon. Mbarire quoted the late Prof. Wangari Maathai, nature is very unkind at times. However, nature can be very kind if you are kind with it. This is because nature has allowed us to exploit it. It allows us to utilise what it has but it requires us to manage and conserve it. If we do not manage and conserve nature, we will not be able to exploit and utilise it as it were. So, it is upon us to choose whether we are cooperating with nature or not. I know for sure that we did pass the actual Climate Change Policy. What is now before us is going a step further to talk about the financing of the same. There is a requirement in the Constitution that we gave ourselves – that at least 10 per cent of the total land mass in Kenya needs to be under forest cover. As I stand here today, and I may be corrected; we are under 2 per cent of forest cover. It, therefore, means that we need to multiply the forest cover that we have presently by five to be able to achieve what Kenyans decided to give themselves in 2010. The most important thing is the scare that we have witnessed in terms of the deteriorating climatic conditions in this country. Some of us come from places that are near forests. My constituency has one of the biggest or largest forest cover in the entire former Nyanza region, namely Gwasi Hills, which has a forest cover of about 4,000 hectares of land. However, that forest is completely destroyed as we speak. Therefore, we are feeling the effects of the destruction, as the people who come from that area. First, there are no rains. We used to have so much rain. At times our crops used to fail because of so much rain but as we speak, there is insufficient rainfall. As if that is not enough, when the rains come, there is no forest cover to stop the flooding. Therefore, even if you do graveling and put murram on the roads, within one year, they are all swept and destroyed and you have no way of effecting movement. This policy paper has come at the right time. I wanted to urge that as a country, we should not just be looking at the possible finances that we are likely to receive as a result of the Paris Agreement. We need to go a step further. Probably, there may be need for us to bring legislation in this House where we are going to condition our domestic companies – those companies that are seeking licencing to do business in this county – to put even 1 per cent of the net profit that they make into making sure that we conserve our environment. That will be a very good idea. I was just looking at Safaricom alone, which makes about Kshs10 billion or close to 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."
}