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{
    "id": 1283033,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1283033/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 50,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Cheruiyot",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Majority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13165,
        "legal_name": "Aaron Kipkirui Cheruiyot",
        "slug": "aaron-cheruiyot"
    },
    "content": "There is an insertion of a new paragraph five, which provides for regulation of carbon markets. This is very important, good people. I have mentioned that in this conversation on the climate issues that face the world, there is a lot of hypocrisy. I have mentioned further in my opening remarks that the leading polluters, the people who are supposed to pay the most because they have gotten us to where we are, wield a lot of power in the globe. Mr. Speaker, Sir, because of the immense power that they wield, you have to set it by regulation and ensure that you have a way through which the Cabinet Secretary is able to bring regulations frequently to our delegated legislation Committees. So, if you have a particular project that is being introduced into the country, you set up ways and means of monitoring and ensuring that those organizations, cooperation’s and anybody who wants to participate in the carbon market, is monitored on whatever they pledge. Mr. Speaker, Sir, people talk a lot. I have mentioned that if you follow the conversations in Glasgow – and I think London thereafter – it is only eventually the last one or two years leading up to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt early this year, that people have started being serious with each other. They realised that just coming, putting on your nice little suits, speaking on all the nice conversations about what needs to be done and retreating back to wait for the summit next year, is not going to get us to a better place. Even us by way or regulations, we must ensure that we have institutions that will monitor. I happened to have caught on to the presentation while it was being made yesterday. I saw part of the memorandum that had been sent and there are Kenyans who are actually taking this conversation seriously. They were saying that instead of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry being the regulator or the people who measure the practice of the carbon market, why not liberalise and leave it to the private sector. In any case, it has been found to be more effective than Government. I think that is a conclusion that we have so far reached as a country. While I agree with them, perhaps this is where the importance of Clauses 10, 11 and 12, on the powers that are being given to the Cabinet Secretary comes in. The overarching regulator of this space and market will remain to the Government of Kenya, it would be better if they license. That is something, which they can address when they eventually bring the regulations here. They need to provide the mechanism and the framework through which to leave it to the private sector; people who have the competence of measuring this carbon market. They are the people who have been part and parcel of this conversation for longer than many of our officials here at the Ministry level. This is so that we ensure that nobody takes advantage of us as a country. If we are not careful, people will come here and will set up organisations. We know just like it happens in the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) world, people quote huge figures in the global and great capitals of the world, of how they are doing great community impact projects in this Republic. However, the truth of the matter is that they are on holiday. They just come here and lounge in five star hotels. When they return to the country, they talk of how they have just come back from doing a lot of work in Africa and such kind of things. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Director, Hansard Services,Senate."
}