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{
    "id": 1158373,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1158373/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 231,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "I was in Turkana yesterday and when we were flying over, we would see people queuing. You would ask yourself what ripple effects this would have on the economy; where people are queuing for over two hours to buy fuel for them to transport people from one place to another. Suppose that was a sick person who needed to go to the hospital, that person would not only die or have their chances of living reduced. What that poor Kenyan would take home on that particular day would be reduced to only ferrying one customer. Maybe when you ferry one customer, you would have spent the whole day queuing to pay Kshs50, yet the Ministry is now equating it on a run on a bank, where it is panic buying. We need to pull up our socks when it comes to issues of management. It is quite sad that we are lamenting, but I hope someone out there will listen and do something. Those capable of doing it should solve the problem. We have a Committee on Energy, but there is nothing much we do. I am sorry that I am a Member of that Committee, but sometimes everything depends on the actions that you intend to get once you call upon people to move. We not only have a crisis in the fuel sector; it is about to even get worse. I felt like crying yesterday when I was going round Turkana. I even regretted somewhat as to why I fight so hard for a lot of money to go to counties when I know there is over Kshs14 billion that goes to Turkana, yet people continue to suffer. You would find that there are only two petrol stations and everyone would be in those two gas stations waiting to get petrol. Why would people not even find the need to move in and invest in that county when the county itself is not doing what they are supposed to do? This is not pointing a finger at one particular person, but the entire Ministry. We know that the Cabinet Secretary resigned but the accounting officer, the Principal Secretary (PS), can work. If you are importing fuel and have an agreement with the oil marketers--- We know that there is a role played by the Kenya Pipeline Corporation. Why not bring all these three people together on a quarterly basis, particularly the Energy Regulatory Commission? Why not sit down and say that we have an X amount of money that belongs to the oil marketers, and we shall release it quarterly. The problem is not Kenyans, as the PS was trying to imply, but the Ministry itself. The President cannot do all those things; he delegates. There is a person who has been given the responsibility to ensure that all oil marketers who are importing do so, meet their quarters and we supply it across the country. Finally, let me remind Kenyans that even though we are facing fuel shortage in this country, we are way much ahead of so many countries. If you watch Cable News Network (CNN) and see what is happening in Sri- Lanka, you will cry. This is all because of the leadership issue. I hope that we will take lessons. We do not want to go to that extent where people will get upset and pack their vehicles on the main road and walk because they are not able to take them anywhere. However, we are still better off than those we call developed nations where cows are dying because they can no longer milk them. There is no diesel to take the milk to the shops. We have to be careful not to hit that level in this country."
}