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{
    "id": 1378803,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1378803/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 76,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Olekina",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 407,
        "legal_name": "Ledama Olekina",
        "slug": "ledama-olekina"
    },
    "content": "Committee on Energy, we recommended that we focus heavily on geothermal. If we focus on geothermal, we will be able to reduce the cost of electricity. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the other part that I hope that we can focus on is mostly investing heavily in renewable energy, focusing not only on geothermal, but also on solar energy. Mr. Speaker, Sir, with the current statistics that we have, we are only producing about 3 per cent in solar energy. If we have firms in this country or industrial plants that produce a lot of their products during the day, why not think of trying to invest heavily in solar energy? If you go through the recommendations, there are recommendations that have got timelines of about 60 days. The biggest challenge we have is that we do not have an Implementation Committee. I hope that the clerks this time around will be able to continue doing the good job that they do, but also find a mechanism whereby the Committee on Energy can report to this House on a self-implementation mechanism on what happens to these recommendations. One recommendation is on KETRACO, setting up a budget, to be able to improve their transmission lines - what makes electricity expensive in this country is dilapidated electricity lines. If you have electricity lines, which are dilapidated, the cost of power will go high. Mr. Speaker, Sir, last week, I brought a Statement here focusing on the issue of Narok County. If you go to Narok County as an example, you will find that Rural Electrification Authority (REA) has invested a lot of money in trying to finish the last mile connectivity, but those transmission lines have never been completed. In one area, you will find either faulty transmitters, the other area you will find a lot of electric poles lying around with cables, in fact, even becoming dangerous to the community. Therefore, these recommendations that we gave are very important. I do not know whether we would be able to force the IPPs to lower the cost of the electricity that they sell to KPC. I think we need to bring them on the table, negotiate, mediate and find a way to reduce the cost. There is one recommendation which we will need a lot of support from the Turkana and Marsabit counties. This is the issue of the land which has got the largest solar wind power in Africa where we get the Lake Turkana wind power. I know in the Committee, we made recommendations that the DCI investigates so that we can finally report to this House that the issue of that land has been resolved. Mr. Speaker, Sir, these thermal plants use a lot of oil. One recommendation that we gave is to ensure that the Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO), which is bought, will help reduce the cost of electricity. If it is not bought together, electricity will still be very expensive. I hope that the Ministry will pursue. There is a recommendation given for KPC to publish the owners of all the IPPs, it is given 60 days. Those 60 days, if we do not follow through, there is no way that we can get that information so that, we bring these people on the table, negotiate with them to lower the cost of electricity. 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."
}