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{
    "id": 947509,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/947509/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 290,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Malalah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13195,
        "legal_name": "Cleophas Wakhungu Malalah",
        "slug": "cleophas-wakhungu-malalah-2"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, the young men who go to the forests to graze end up being arrested, taken to court and fined a lot of money simply because they took a cow or two to graze in the forest. Allowing local communities to collect firewood and graze their animals are some of the incentives that the forest department should consider to give the communities living around the forests. It is ironical that when the communities surrounding forests are bereaved, the forest department pretends to be part of the community by donating the same firewood that they refused the old woman to collect while she was alive. I have witnessed instances where the forest department made donations in form of firewood at funerals in Kakamega County, in a bid to position themselves as good people, yet they are the same people who arrest the members of the surrounding community when they go to the forest to graze. Madam Temporary Speaker, we need to be solution oriented when it comes to increasing the forest cover in our country. I would like to thank the drafters of Competency Based Curriculum (CBC). The CBC has overemphasized the need to instil environmental consciousness of our children from a very early stage. Nowadays, I see pupils in Grade One being conscious about the environment. I have witnessed pupils planting trees. There is a programme that is supported by the CBC, where a child is expected to adopt a tree and take care for it until they finish Grade Eight. It is important for the county governments and the national Government, through the Forest Department, to collaborate with schools and finance them to ensure that they implement the environmental aspect of the CBC that is being implemented in our schools. As leaders, if we are united, we can achieve this dream that is being advocated for here by Sen. Kasanga. Madam Temporary Speaker, the fourth point that Sen. Kasanga has brought out in this Motion is that all the county assemblies are supposed to initiate processes of enacting legislation on forestry functions for county governments. As the respective county assemblies will be implementing the committees, we should be genuine as leaders. Recently, I saw leaders who I respect so much, some of whom are seated in this House, preventing the removal of people from the Mau Forest. It is a shame that those leaders were drumming animosity in that region. They were inciting the public to resist eviction, yet they know that those people live in the forest area. It is a shame. Kakamega Forest---"
}