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{
    "id": 1224880,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1224880/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 264,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kilgoris, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Sunkuli",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " I also stand to support this Motion. I thank the Hon. Member from Laikipia. I can see good things come from Laikipia. This Motion touches every citizen. In the years gone by, it was not easy to discuss these issues of electricity in rural areas. However, it is the current discussion. It is because our country has progressed to such a situation that the need for power and electricity is real. However, many people are blaming the monopoly, and I am one of them. If you look at the price of power in Kenya compared to the region, Kenya has one of the highest if, in fact, not the highest. They sell a kWh at Ksh20.28. In Burundi, it is Ksh12.34. This is a very expensive price of power. Governments have come and said that they are going to reduce it. I know that former President Uhuru Kenyatta promised so much that power was going to come down, but the price of power defied President Uhuru Kenyatta’s promises. Now these prices have even defied the current Government that came in on the ticket or platform of reducing the price of power. We have to address ourselves on what is the issue behind this. Regionally, I know we used to think that there is only one source of producing power, which was hydroelectricity. But now we have diversified. We have geothermal production of power and we have wind production of power. I know there are companies, like the tea factories in Kericho, which produce some amount of electricity they consume and sell to the grid. There are sugar companies that have wanted to use bagasse or ethanol to produce power. The sources of production of power have increased. We are no longer in the days when we used to get power from Jinja. We have power all over. We are beyond the days when we depended on the dams to get hydroelectricity, yet the prices of power are still very high. It requires a study. I am shy to say that we should have a commission of inquiry. The issue of power has become endemic, and it has produced some consequences. We are saying here under the Vision 2030 that we want an industrialised country. The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) said one of these days that they want their chairman back. It is impossible to have an industrial country when your power is neither affordable nor sustainable, and you cannot have a cheaper way of funding industries. Unless we deal with the question of power, industries in Kenya will never see the light of the day. Industrialization will continue to be a dream far away to be realised. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I ask KP to take it upon itself to do this. When I was in China, KP was the one that was allowed to borrow money for power purposes. This is because in those days, the Geothermal Development Company ( GDC ) and KETRACO did not have a good balance sheet. Today, it is KP that does not have a good balance sheet. Where did things go wrong? Speaking on behalf of the people of Kilgoris, the question of KP is a real disaster there. I do not know why power is never consistent there. I am not a fan of football, but my children are. When we are watching a football match and a goal is about to be scored, KP switches the power off. You cannot understand them. I was not in Nairobi during the demonstrations, but I was watching from the television and, all of a sudden, the power went off. There is hardly nothing that you can do with power in Kilgoris. People who run butcheries have their meat going bad. If you have kept milk in the fridge or anything that is meant for use in hotels, power is not consistent enough to make your business sustainable. The reason is because we do not have a transmission centre in Kilgoris. We are far away from our headquarters in Narok, and our friends in Sotik have taken this advantage. I do not know how they ration the power so that Kilgoris get a little bit of it and the rest of it goes to serve the Bomet interest. I call upon KP to 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."
}