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"content": "Looking at the political and regional construct of Africa, we have countries that we can call regional powerhouses. In the construct of Africa, South Africa was meant to be the powerhouse in the south, Nigeria to the west, Egypt to the North and Kenya to the East. At least, that is what I believe. But if power is light and power is civilization, then we are indeed, far from being a civilized nation. We are, indeed, far from being a nation that can light itself. As I speak, South Africa has a generation capacity of about 40,000 megawatts. It is projected to reach 60,000 megawatts. Nigeria is currently at 6,000 megawatts with a projection to reach 10,000 megawatts. Egypt to the north is 20,000 megawatts with a projection of 30,000 megawatts. In other words, if you were to use that as your scale for measuring how civilized and prosperous we are, then South Africa is 40 times better than Kenya. Nigeria is ten times better and Egypt is 20 times better. That is dismal! Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is not just about Africa as a whole. If you look at the East Africa as a region, we know that Uganda has just discovered oil. We know that Tanzania has some of the best known deposits of open-field uranium in Africa. My sense is that, once this is exploited, then Kenya will certainly lag behind in this field. I think it is important that we take steps. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, as I congratulate my friend, the Assistant Minister for Energy here, some of their programmes need to be serious and realistic. Looking at the budget which was laid before this House, part of the expenditure for the Ministry of Energy is to go into producing new electrical power. The projection is that within the next three to five years, they want to add another 2,000 megawatts into the national grid. Now, one has to ask, it has taken us over 46 years to generate over 1,000 megawatts, how realistic is it for us to be assured that in the next three to five years, we are going to add another 2,000 megawatts? To me, this looks more like a wish list than a realistic target for the Government. Having said that, I think some of the burden and strains that the Kenyan people are going through, especially with regard to affordability of electric power, are derived from some of the arrangements that we have. As the Assistant Minister gives us the proposals that they have to enhance and improve electrical power supply in the country, I think it is time the entire energy sector was looked into and opened up. For example, why is it that Kenyans know very little about the agreements that exist between the Government and the Independent Power Producers (IPP)? I think Kenyans are paying to sustain the IPPs. Kenyans need to know who are the faces behind these IPPs. I know there are Kenyans who are the owners of the IPPs. If you look at the tariffs, some of the IPPs charge Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC), ten times more than what KenGen charges. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, why should Kenyans continue to bear the burden of private investment by Kenyans when it can be done better? We need to know and I think as time goes by, we may even be forced to move a Motion in this House. Some of these agreements are so unfair to Kenyans. I understand there are some which run up to 20 years. Why should it be 20 years? How was that arrived at? We need to look at the entire scenario of the energy sector in Kenya so that even as we aspire to give our people the power they need to run their activities, we also remove these unfair arrangements that existed, agreements that were signed in the dark, agreements that"
}