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{
    "id": 1378802,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1378802/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 75,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this Report. Since I serve in the Committee on Energy, I would like to focus on our recommendations. I plead with my colleagues to take time and read this Report. Once you read it, you will realize that the Senate Committee on Energy concentrated on finding solutions to our problems in terms of cost of energy. Let us sit here, argue, discuss and try to find out why electricity is expensive in this country, making everything else costly. We must focus on specific, time-bound recommendations to achieve something. One of our recommendations has to do with restructuring the debt owed by KPC to local financial institutions. KPC borrowed the loans in US dollars. They got the loans at the rate of 6 per cent plus liable. When you calculate, this will be about Kshs7.5 per cent. With the inflation, this will be 10 per cent in US$. You have seen the way the dollar exchange rate has been dancing around. All that cost is transferred back to the citizens of this country. The Committee proposed a timeline on what needs to be done to address the issue of the Kshs38 billion that KPC owes to local financial institutions that loaned the money in US currency. The Kshs38 billion can only be reduced if KPC considers converting the loan from commercial banks to the international loans they borrow. The cost of electricity is a result of the contracts that were signed. I heard my brother, the good lawyer from Makueni, arguing that those contracts are not cast in stone. We understand contracts. If one party amends a contract, it will involve litigation. I do not believe that this House has the power to pass legislation to amend a contract. We should look at the terms of the IPPs contracts. What is making electricity expensive - and I thank the Chairperson for literally highlighting it in his moving notes - is the cost of the thermal energy. If you look at the amount of power that we produce with thermal energy in this country, it is 12.5 per cent. Nonetheless, that is the most expensive. That is why, in the 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 and AudioServices, Senate."
}