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{
    "id": 1091123,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1091123/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 71,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this progressive Bill; The Natural Resources (Benefit Sharing) Bill (Senate Bills No. 25 Of 2020), by Sen. (Dr.) Zani. For those who may not know, this is not the only Bill that has been moved by Sen. (Dr.) Zani in an attempt to safeguard the local communities that have natural resources. She had a Bill similar to this in the 11th Parliament or at the beginning of the 12th Parliament but it died in the usual way. We all know what happens when a Senate Bill goes to the ‘Lower House’. I do hope that this Bill will have a different fate. I hope that out of good order and good thinking, our colleagues in the ‘Lower House’ will appreciate the importance of the legal framework that this Bill seeks to provide for the benefit of local communities. It is my prayer that they will see beyond the House of the Senate. They should remember that we are all representatives of the people who are to benefit from this Bill. Every part of this country is blessed with a natural or manmade resources. It is upon the arrangement and organization by the Government to either spend money in trying to make sure that the resources are commercially viable. The Government is supposed to set up systems to make the natural resources usable by the rest of the society so as to bring success to a particular community. It is unfortunate that almost 60 years after independence, many of the local communities that have been immensely blessed with the natural resources do not benefit from them. It is only those of us who are in urban places like Nairobi who know the benefit of such resources. You cannot compare the amount of revenue that comes into the country courtesy of that natural resource and the benefits to the local communities. Sometimes in mentioning Maasai Mara National Park, we forget about the rest of the national parks in far flung places like Turkana and Samburu counties. There are others in Nanyuki and the Tsavo. These are places that generate a lot of income for this country yet despite proximity to that resource, local communities have very little, if any, to show for that proximity. For most of them, the resources are collected by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and, maybe, those who are intelligent enough to set up a lodge which is way beyond the price of what local communities can do. They may not have the resources to put up a lodge, eco lodge or hotel close by. On many occasions, you will see them try to emulate and copy some of those things, but they do not have the capacity to come up with something that can attract sufficient revenue for them to draw a livelihood out of a particular natural resource."
}