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{
    "id": 1451380,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1451380/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 227,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Abass",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13587,
        "legal_name": "Abass Sheikh Mohamed",
        "slug": "abass-sheikh"
    },
    "content": "parts of my county. The Bill gives a lot of responsibility to local content, like the experts in the country and the local communities within that area. There will now be a thorough environmental impact assessment. This is to ensure that we know the kind of things they are carrying. They have big containers and nobody knows what they are carrying. They are so secretive and do everything exclusively that even the local people who work for them cannot access some of their accounts. That should not be happening anymore. The Bill will give powers to Kenyans. The one other thing is the Local Content Bill (Senate Bills No.50 of 2023) will ensure the local communities receive 30 per cent of whatever income that will be generated from the resources. That will be divided between the community and the county governments. The only problem we have is the capacity. Kenyans have not had much knowledge on hydrocarbon and oil development. It is high time that our universities changed. We need to develop the young men and women who are studying things to do with environment, engineering and all other things, so that they can have capacity on hydrocarbon development studies. Then we will know that we have experts who are able to safeguard our interests. When multinationals used to come in, they would do everything exclusively and mostly, undercover. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this Bill will empower the technical team from Kenya and they will know what is taking place in the country. In instances where oil exploration has taken place, the environment is usually affected. There are times the soil completely changes, trees die and water dries up. If you go to Marsabit, Wajir and other places where oil exploration has been done, there is total destruction of the environment. It is usually associated with many incurable diseases like cancer. It is time that the Kenyan Government becomes serious so that if anyone wants to do oil and gas exploration, inspection takes place before multinational companies are allowed to do these explorations. We must ensure that the agreements being done because most of the local people do not understand what is going on, that the local content percentage should be enforced and members of that community benefit from those activities. What happened in Turkana County was that, in most parts, oil transported by vehicles, but nobody knew how much money was given to the locals. The last time the Senate Committee visited there, they said that they had not received any penny. Maybe, the county got a little money, but it did not trickle down to locals. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as the Chairperson has said, communities cannot get even water from those camps where the explorers are. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) should be enhanced. We must ensure that before any exploration takes place, the community gets its benefits first. With those few remarks, I beg to second the Bill. I thank you."
}