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{
    "id": 947191,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/947191/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 415,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Bumula, Independent",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mwambu Mabongah",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13309,
        "legal_name": "Moses Wekesa Mwambu Mabonga",
        "slug": "moses-wekesa-mwambu-mabonga-2"
    },
    "content": "I do not think a problem solves a problem. That has been the challenge with this Government. It is very quick to molest its own people without even proper plans in place. I am a resident of Bungoma County where Mt. Elgon is. I have looked at the Report keenly. You can see clearly dissenting voices from the local community. In Mt. Elgon, you are allowing one community to remain in the forest because it is calling the forest their ancestral land and, at the same time, you are displacing a portion of another community. This will bring conflict. It is important before the Government thinks of recovering the forest space that they want to recover, to have proper implementation plan. If anything, if the Government is serious to acquire the 10 per cent, they know very well where the forest was by the time of Independence. Interestingly, you will find people who have issued title deeds in offices with promotions. Hon. Speaker, this one raises a lot of reservations. It is our duty that before we actually begin to evict people out of the forest, we know the acreage that the Departmental Committee on Environment and Natural Resources is talking about. How many people are going to be affected? We do not want to see a scenario like the one we are seeing in Mau Forest today. Children are crying on the road and the same Government is watching. Schools are being brought down and the same Government that used money to build them is watching. So, what kind of investment are we doing? The best thing they could have done as a Committee was to come here and tell us how many acres of land they are going to recover and what percentage it is going to contribute to the 10 per cent that they want. Lastly, they need to tell us where they are going to take those people. If you settle one community in Mt. Elgon and leave the other one in the forest, you are creating a problem. Being a neighbor to Mt. Elgon, I know that this problem will definitely spill even to my constituency. I have a lot of reservations on this. Yes, we need to conserve the forest and our water towers. It is very important but the Government must take its responsibility by ensuring that the people who are evicted from the forest are resettled. We do not want to sit here and see Kenyan children suffering on the roads just because the Government wants to implement its policies. I have realised that many directives are being issued by the cabinet secretaries in charge of various ministries. Interestingly, reports come here and we discuss them. But there is no proper follow up on what they are doing. We want to see proper monitoring of policies of whatever they are implementing. At least, we want to see that we have recovered this-and-that from the Mau Forest, or it has increased its percentage acreage up to a certain level. This is so that, as we move to the next water tower or the next forest, we know what we are going to achieve. However, as it is now, it is not clear. That is why when we ask for the acreage, they go to one place and leave the other places empty. When the Deputy Speaker and the Member for Kuresoi North said that there are people who have been in charge of this forest, I agree. They have even raised their voices on this submission that, that is their ancestral land. Where are you going to take them? Before you do any kind of implementation, we need to know where you are going to take those people to because we know the kind of people they are. You cannot just wake up one day and tell the people who live in the forest that you are evicting them. You do not care where they will take their children and animals. You will be creating a problem. That is why we are concerned as stakeholders from Bungoma. In fact, some of us ought to have been called to appear before this Committee to raise our issues. I hope we still have some space to do so. I want to register my reservations on this Report. We need more time to engage the community and the leadership. In Mt. Elgon, we have different sub-tribes that need to be involved before this kind of programme takes off. 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."
}