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{
    "id": 1511470,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1511470/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 546,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Central Imenti, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Moses Kirima",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "companies which have no identity at all; they are amorphous. Their origin or where they emanated from is unknown. They insist on being paid in dollars. To pay these companies in dollars means that we are depleting the little federal reserve that we have in form of foreign currency. This reduces the country’s power to make foreign purchase. Therefore, these companies must be registered. I hope the Committee recommended that they should be registered, so that they can come out in the open for them to be known. They are operated by Kenyans. Some of them are registered in foreign countries like Cayman Islands and Seychelles. Unless we register them, they will never come out. The current cost of electricity only serves the privileged Kenyans. What about the poor ones in the villages who cannot afford electricity? Currently, electricity is only for the rich because they are the only ones who can afford the installation fee. If possible, we must do away with monopoly because that is what has prevented many Kenyans from having power. It is only a few who can afford it. As it has been said earlier, we need to make it open so that whoever wants to come in can do so and provide electricity to Kenyans. If we have contracts like the one Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) had with Adani recently, then it will still fall in the hands of cartels. This will make power more expensive than before. The cartels pay bribes which they must recover. Once they do it, then we will be in total problems again. I highly commend the work of the Committee. We must try and find a way to attract investors into this country by lowering the cost of power. Currently, in East Africa, Kenya is the most expensive country in power costs, yet we generate it by either water, which is renewable, or geothermal, which is adequate in Kenya. It is only a few power stations which supply power through generators like Kipevu Power Station. There are also a few ones which use fuel to produce power which makes it more expensive, if you consider it per unit. Even in your house, a token of Ksh1,000 is depleted within two weeks, yet you have no factory, you live alone, and there is no one in the home during the day. There is a lot of stealing in this sector. I pray that the Committee goes further to find out who is benefitting from the poor people and taxpayers’ money. Who are stealing from us? With that knowledge, I believe we will succeed. If we reduce the cost of power in Kenya, this country will be economically stable and more investors will be encouraged to come by. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
}