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{
    "id": 818592,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/818592/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 391,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Suba North, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Odhiambo-Mabona",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 376,
        "legal_name": "Millie Grace Akoth Odhiambo Mabona",
        "slug": "millie-odhiambo-mabona"
    },
    "content": " Thank you Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I wish to support the Committee Report. In supporting, I indicate that I thank the committee for the places they have visited. Even without having participated with the committee, you only need to drive just a little out of this town to see we are having a serious problem. This weekend I drove past Mai Mahiu as I was going to Nakuru to attend a ruracio and one thing caught my eyes. I loved this church around Mai Mahiu one time when I wanted to wed; the church that hosts eight or so people. That is the reason I did not do it because Kenya is very communal. My own community protested that they all wanted to attend the wedding and they could not all go into the small place. Because I love nature, I wanted to wed in the church and do my reception across it. It was so green and so beautiful. As I was passing there this time, you can see the forest cover has gone down terribly. There is no evidence of reforestation being done. You could see logging was going on because the land was being used to get murram for road construction. You see that when you drive in my own constituency in Homa Bay County. This is especially because of road construction. A lot of the counties are doing works of opening up roads because of devolution. I can say that, indeed, we have a very serious problem as a country. I refer to one of the things that the late Prof. Wangari Maathai said, that: “Nature is very unforgiving. If you attack nature, it will fight back”. Some of the issues that have been mentioned by the committee in terms of climate change and all the issues that come with climate change are a consequence of nature fighting back because we are invading it. Unless we take mitigating measures, we are in for problems. That is why we have tsunamis and all other calamities related to nature. Only yesterday, one of the girls that I mentor called Winnie Nyandiga, came back from Rwanda where she attended a meeting of the youth and she asked me: “Is it that Rwanda has only six million people that they are very strong on environmental conservation? Is it because we are many that we cannot conserve?” It is not an issue of numbers. It is an issue of impunity. We have laws, we have the Environmental Act, the Forests Act and several laws that are dealing with conservation. Other than the challenges of lack of personnel, vehicles and everything, there is also an issue of impunity. People know they can get away with disobeying the law. Most of us do not take environmental issues seriously. If you want to know, although the Environmental Act provides that one should not litter, how many times do you drive right in the centre of the city and people litter liberally? It is because they know nobody will bother them. It is more like the way city askaris run around chasing young men who are washing vehicles and the men know that it is just temporary enjoyment. Nobody will bother them the next week. We must move away from that culture of impunity. Even if there are a few personnel, they must be dedicated and committed to doing their work. We must also deal with the pull factors, like the high population, which has forced people to move into forests for habitation. That is why we are having issues of the Mau Forest, which I The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}