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{
    "id": 947538,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/947538/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 319,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "This manner of thinking is what we need to appreciate all the other challenges that societies face. We need to appreciate that, as a country, we get civilized every day. Whenever the most civilised societies have issues that they feel warrant the attention of everyone in the community, people sit down to discuss and point out those who are a nuisance to society. If this had been established, most of the forest cover in this country would not have been destroyed in the manner in which it has been destroyed for the past 50 years. If you go to regions around Mt. Elgon, the Mau and other places, it is not that the communities which live there do not know who destroys the forests. If we do as it is being proposed in this Motion, they will point out those who go to the forest to cut down trees and ask them to stop because they affect the entire community. What did we do in our little urban wisdom of imagining that we are the know-it- all in Nairobi? We created something called the Kenya Forest Service (KFS). Little did we know that we were creating a toll station for people who want to rob us for the beauty of our forests. These people have been presiding over the destruction of our forests by receiving bribes from multinational timber agencies. I have been following the debate, and I am surprised at how many of our colleagues continue to speak ignorantly about the destruction of the Mau and Mt. Elgon forests, among others. People in this country have bought hook, line and sinker that Mau Forest has been destroyed by village peasants, but that is not the truth. The Mau Forest has been destroyed by the “Raiplys” and “Timsales”. These are the big multinationals that cut down trees in thousands of acres. It is not the poor man with a panga and a jembe that walk into the forest and cause that kind of destruction. In this country, as long as you can buy the media and manage the stories, people will believe you and think that what you are doing is for the benefit of the country."
}