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{
    "id": 820204,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/820204/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 322,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Wilberforce Oundo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13331,
        "legal_name": "Wilberforce Ojiambo Oundo",
        "slug": "wilberforce-ojiambo-oundo-2"
    },
    "content": "I come from Funyula Constituency, which used to be food- sufficient. There used to be a lot of water throughout the year but, because we have not taken any attention, we have depleted our forests. We are now a food-deficient constituency. We have massive water scarcity in the constituency. We have erosion that is becoming a threat even to the roads simply because we allowed our forests and hills to be cleared of forests to burn charcoal, build houses, do logging for purposes of timber and the rest. As the Member of Parliament for Funyula, I will do all that I can to ensure that, nationally, we preserve our forests. The high electricity tariffs we have in this country and the scandals are because we use diesel-generated electricity because we have depleted our forests. We heard about the Sondu Miriu electricity project. We do not hear much about it simply because the water catchment is not enough to supply hydroelectric power. There are very many cases of depletion of forests. The causes are too many. We cannot afford to sit back and wait. I look back in the years 2007, 2008 and 2010 when the Rt. Honourable Raila Amollo Odinga raised the danger of depleting Mau Forest. He was called names on the Floor of this House. I am sure that quite a number of us still see those clips. People called him all sorts of names not knowing that a time would come for them to realise that those who abused him did not understand how dangerous it was to destroy the Mau Forest. As much as we have to be sympathetic to those being evicted from the Mau Forest, we also have to be realistic that we cannot entertain a few people at the expense of destroying the entire country. I sympathise with them, especially because of the harsh way in which they were evicted but they eventually have to leave the forest so that we salvage lower Nyanza, our tourism industry and the nomadic communities in this country. Otherwise, we are treading on a dangerous situation. As I conclude, as my colleagues have said, the Mau eviction is not politics. We should not be drawn into the cracks that are in the Jubilee Coalition and the community living in Rift Valley. We need to be sober enough and candid with one another. We should put this country as plot number one and help save Mau Forest. With those few remarks, I support the Report and I urge my colleagues to adopt it as it is to allow for its implementation."
}