Japhet M. Kareke Mbiuki

All parliamentary appearances

Entries 291 to 300 of 980.

• 31 Jul 2018 in National Assembly: At the same time, we had an opportunity to meet the Community Forest Association members, who informed the committee of the following: 1. The communities around the forest areas were doing a lot in terms of forest conservation but their efforts were not appreciated. For instance, they signed a contract to prune forest trees but the contract was never honoured by KFS. Instead, the contract was given to casual workers, who never did the work. 2. The PELIS programme had been of help to the communities in terms of food security and improving the livelihoods of the people living near ... view
• 31 Jul 2018 in National Assembly: system, which had been rebranded and renamed “Plantation Establishment and Livelihood Improvement Scheme”, commonly known as PELIS. The scheme allowed forest-adjacent communities to grow food crops as KFS establishes the forest plantation. There are 23,621 hectares currently under PELIS, providing food to more than 450,000 households. 6. Logging in Kenya was in deplorable condition, both in public and community forests as well as in farmlands. This was attributed to inadequate capacity of KFS to enhance licensing conditions as well as abuse of licence conditions by saw millers and other licensees. In particular, there was illegal logging, charcoal burning, illegal grazing, ... view
• 31 Jul 2018 in National Assembly: system. Most parts of the country were experiencing drying of rivers, lowering of water tables as well as drying of wells. 7. Some of the highlighted catchment areas with extensive rates were the Mau Forest Complex, Mount Kenya Forest Ecosystem, Embobut Forest, Mount Elgon Ecosystem as well as Nyakweri Forest. As we debate this report, we all know what is happening in Mau Forest and as a committee we are equally seized of this particular matter and we expect the CS to appear before the committee this coming Thursday so that some of the push and pull that Kenyans are ... view
• 31 Jul 2018 in National Assembly: Inadequate forest protection and security staff shortage. The gazetted forest area in the country is 2.5 million hectares manned by only 2,500 rangers. So, this is extremely inadequate and becomes difficult for these rangers to enforce and ensure there is no logging. This translated to a low ratio of 1 ranger to 1000 hectares of forest land which is far below the international recommended ratio of 1:400 hectares. The same rangers were also manning community forests and also participate in other multi-agency assignments. view
• 31 Jul 2018 in National Assembly: We have weak legislation. The Kenya Forest Conservation and Management Act, 2016 watered down penalties on forest offences as were previously spelt out in the defunct Forests Act, 2005. Once this Report is adopted by the House, the committee will recommend the 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. view
• 31 Jul 2018 in National Assembly: necessary legislation to ensure that these weak legislative areas especially the penalties are well addressed. We also have inadequate suitable vehicles and weapons for operations in forest terrain and lack of modern technology, platforms and communication equipment. While we were interrogating the KFS, we decided because there has been hue and cry… A number of KFS officers were suspended and as a committee we decided to invite them so that we could hear their side of the story because we had an engagement with the Cabinet Secretary and some board members of KFS who made the decision to suspend some ... view
• 31 Jul 2018 in National Assembly: 1. Mr. Emilio Mugo who was the Chief Conservator of Forests who was sent on compulsory leave; 2. Mr. Boniface Wasike Simiyu who was also sent on leave for 90 days; 3. Mr. Patrick Nyaga who was sent on leave for 90 days; 4. Mr. Francis Kariuki Kamuti; 5. Mr. Eric Chemitei Kiplagat who was interdicted; and 6. Ms. Wambui Nafasi who was also sent on compulsory leave for 90 days. view
• 31 Jul 2018 in National Assembly: During their presentation to the committee, the officers decried lack of proper procedure in processing their disciplinary action. They alleged that they were not given a fair hearing by the former KFS Board. They also decried the fact that the Board Chairman almost acted unilaterally in implementing the disciplinary action without a decision of the Board. It was alleged that the officers’ suspension was sanitised by subsequent board meetings which took place after they had been suspended. During the meeting with the former board members, we had an opportunity of engaging two of them and they submitted that the term ... view
• 31 Jul 2018 in National Assembly: full board of the KFS. The suspensions and interdictions were largely reactionary as they were motivated by the need of the board to be seen to act in the heat of the moratorium on logging activities and the appointment of a new CS. None of the affected officers had show-cause letters from the KFS management hence the suspensions were merely meant to facilitate investigations. view
• 31 Jul 2018 in National Assembly: Finally, the harvesting of trees across the country was in tandem with the felling plan and therefore procedural. The said felling plan was approved by the KFS board. However, delayed rains in the country focused the country on logging activities which were blamed on the shortage of rainfall. view