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{
    "id": 968002,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/968002/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 31,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. (Dr.) Langat",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13189,
        "legal_name": "Christopher Andrew Langat",
        "slug": "christopher-andrew-langat"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for allowing me this chance to support this important Petition from the people of Dundori, Nakuru County. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am wondering loudly whether the Government is currently at war with its citizens. There are a lot of wrong perceptions going around in our country. There is a strong perception that these people who are normally found in the forests are simply criminals who have sold their land, and decided to live in Government or gazetted forests. More often than not, this is a wrong perception. The Government has been acting in a very inhumane way. For example, these people from Dundori have been removed with a notice of only two weeks. They are now landless by the road, and their property has been destroyed. We are all in agreement that environment must be conserved. However, the approach that the Government is currently employing, by using the provincial administration to act on its citizens, is very wrong. Mr. Speaker, Sir, to settle this matter once and for all, the Government has to conduct an effective research to establish where exactly these people were before they went to the Mau Forest. There have been theories that initially, the ancestral land of these people was taken by colonialists, and that when the colonialists left, those who were well connected during Independence took their ancestral land. They were then left with temporary settlements in the forest. Now that the conservation measures are becoming strict all over the world, instead of the Government trying to understand the circumstances that led these people to live in the forest, they just go round evicting them and rendering them landless. There was a time when the Government tried to settle some people, but if we go and dig deep into the issues, the people who were compensated were the wrong people. The people who were supposed to be compensated are the ones who are suffering in the various parts of this country in the gazetted forests. Mr. Speaker, Sir, I would like to urge the Committee that will take responsibility of this Petition to make sure that they establish the reasons why these people are living in these gazetted forests. They should also go further to establish their ancestral lands, so that those people who took their ancestral land may be settled by the Government and the original owners be resettled once and for all. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}