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{
    "id": 1020580,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1020580/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 340,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Nominated, ANC",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Godfrey Osotsi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13172,
        "legal_name": "Godfrey Osotsi",
        "slug": "godfrey-osotsi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for the opportunity to contribute to this Report. First, I will start by thanking the Departmental Committee on Environment and Natural Resources for this very strong Report and one that many Kenyans have been waiting for. I will go to some of the issues raised. The first issue is the one that has been in our media for some time, one that has created a lot of anxiety in this country and that is the issue of Itare Dam Project. You are aware that there has been concern around the contractor for this project, a company by the name CMC Di Ravenna that has had to go through bankruptcy proceedings in Italy. This is a major concern because public money is going to be lost because of lack of proper due diligence in the selection of a contractor for the project. If you go to Itare, there is a lot of very expensive equipment amounting to billions of shillings. Part of the plant has already been constructed. However, now the contractor is not on site. He is facing bankruptcy proceedings in Italy. I think this is a serious matter because we are even told that the performance bond and even the advance payment guarantee is almost expiring. Therefore, who is going to pay for this wastage of billions of money? I think the Committee should have gone further and reprimanded some people who were involved in the procurement of this project. The Report is silent on that. Billions of taxpayers' money is going to be lost because of someone not having done his work right. This brings us to the issue of how well are background checks done before a contractor is chosen for multi-billion projects like this one. How is continuous due diligence done even in the course of the project? I think this is one issue that as Parliament, we will need to follow up and as the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Implementation, I want to guarantee the House that we are going to take this matter up very seriously, so that we go to the bottom of it. The next issue is that of land which ties into project planning. For most of these dams, the project is planned, procured and yet land is not secured. Therefore, when they start the project, they end up having issues, which delays the implementation of the project and this is something affecting many other projects of this nature. The other very important issue is the involvement of locals in the project through, for example, utilisation of local resources to build the project. This Report talks very well about the Kiserian Project and how it was done through utilisation of local resources and it was done very well. However, in the other projects, you find that there is a lot of external resources which are used, therefore, leading to conflicts with the local community. The other point is the financing model for the project. We need to desist from the Engineering Procurement Construction and Financing (EPCF) Model. We lose local content in such projects and we end up having challenges such as this one. All in all, this Report is good. I agree with the Report recommendation that the Ministry should come up with a directorate on dam The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}