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{
    "id": 1230916,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1230916/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 44,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Endebess, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Robert Pukose",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Thank you for allowing me to contribute to this Motion on reduction of the cost of electricity. You know that the cost of electricity has been rising. If you buy tokens and compare them with the ones you bought last month at the same cost, you will find that they are different. They are less tokens compared to what you bought last month. Sustaining very unfair contractual agreements has necessitated this. This county has more than 280 megawatts of energy. Our consumption is around 220 megawatts. We have more energy power yet our consumption prices continue going up. The cost of electricity even for people to put up business within our country is quite high. That is why companies are even running away to other places with cheaper electricity. It is high time the Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum looked at these costs of electricity and remedied the situation. The power purchase agreements the Government has entered especially with independent power producers are quite unfair. Diesel generators started some time back entered into agreements lasting close to 25 years. If the Government has to terminate them, compensation is very high yet we continue investing in cheaper sources of energy like geothermal power. We also continue investing in hydropower and solar. We are even in the process of investing in nuclear energy that is even cheaper. It is very important for the Departmental Committee on Energy to look at certain items. We have institutions funded by public coffers for many years. For instance, the GDC. It has had programmes and projects that have not matured. Look at a project like the Silale Geothermal Station that has gulped and gobbled many resources from the Government yet we have not produced a single megawatt of energy up to date. This is the case and yet we continue funding the GDC. It is high time the value for money is looked into. We have other institutions like KenGen that have been doing very well. The KenGen set up hydroelectric power station, produces power and even produces power at a lower cost in neighbouring countries like Ethiopia. This is a Government institution that sells power at a lower cost compared with the high-cost diesel generators and the high cost of other forms of energy like wind energy which gobbled up money. We have Lake Turkana Wind Power Project in Loiyangalani that gobbled a lot of money. If you look at the Auditor-General’s Report, it reports that there was a signed contractual agreement in such a way that the Government compensated contractors at a loss. The Auditor-General has pointed out this, but nothing is yet to be acted upon. It is very important for Government agencies to act and recover where we have losses."
}