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{
"id": 1522983,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522983/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tharaka, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. George Murugara",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support this Bill by Hon. Bernard Masaka Shinali, the Member of Parliament for Ikolomani. The Gold Processing Bill (National Assembly Bill No.46 of 2023) has a very close association with Ikolomani. The gold mines of western Kenya, which to the best of my knowledge, were started in the 1930s, have remained rudimentary to date because we do not have any clear law that guides the processing of gold in the country. We know very well that what happens is that prospectors, most of whom are illegal, go all over the place and try to use crude means to try and find gold, which they can process, possibly smuggle out of the country, and sell in lucrative areas. It is high time that we declared the Mining Act as not sufficient to cater for gold mining. We need to have a standalone Act of Parliament, which will guide us on how to process gold found in various parts of the country, including Taita Taveta, Nyanza, and eastern Kenya. Gold traces are found in those areas, which may be processed to become profitable. If the Bill becomes an Act of Parliament, it will see prospectors or spectators coming over even to my Tharaka Constituency. Who knows? We may be lucky to find gold in those seasonal rivers which traverse my constituency, in the same style as what happened in South Africa in the 19th Century where prospectors in transit looking for gold came across what is known as the Sand River. The River is known to have plenty of gold in the form of pellets in the sand. As a result of their discovery, there was great development in Johannesburg and everywhere else. I urge my colleagues to pass this Bill so that we start regulating gold processing. We know very well that the issue of gold is emotive. Many people have tried their luck with gold mining and sometimes it does not yield anything. They end up losing a lot of money because we do not have a clear law that guides us on the processing of gold in the country. Let us look at the provisions of the Bill. After the preliminaries, we move to Clauses 6 to 24 which establish a Gold Processing Corporation. We begin by establishing a legal entity known as the Gold Processing Corporation. It will have a seal, and will be capable of suing and being sued, and doing all other things that pertain to corporations, including borrowing and lending money, if that becomes possible. Clause 7 states that the headquarters of the Corporation shall be in Nairobi. That is good enough, although we should have made a provision that the Corporation will have offices, possibly in the counties, so that each county has an office which can regulate the mining and processing of gold. The functions of the Corporation are set out in Clause 8. They elaborate on what the Corporation can do, including collecting, sampling, purifying, smelting, fabricating, and doing all other things pertaining to gold mining and processing. Clauses 8(a) to (j) outline the functions of the Corporation. Clause 11 outlines that the Corporation will be run by a Board. The Board will have a chairperson and other members appointed by the President. Some are supposed to be experts in gold mining, exploration, smelting, and processing. The functions of the Board are given as well as the qualifications of the persons to sit in the Board. However, we shall be looking at this with a toothcomb as we go to the Committee of the whole House for the Third Reading of this Bill to see whether we need to amend certain areas. From there we have financial provisions relating to monies of the Board and the Corporation. They will get funding through allocations appropriated by this House. The Corporation can also borrow and obtain money from grants and any other forms of revenue raising that will apply to it. Let us go to Clause 29. It deals with processing licenses. Again, this is very important because initially there was no form of regulation. Anybody could mine gold. If lucky to get The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}