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{
    "id": 1522992,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522992/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 436,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kibwezi West, MCCP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Mwengi Mutuse",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "moved by the Member for Ikolomani, Hon. Shinali. From the outset, allow me to congratulate him for the good work of coming up with a private Member's Bill. It is not easy for a Member to engage in research and develop a Bill of this magnitude and present it before Parliament, to address certain deficiencies they think ought to be regulated through a legal framework. It is not lost on us that we are representatives of the people. By dint of Article 94 and 95 of the Constitution, our work as Members of Parliament is to represent the people who elected us. There is a sizable population of people in Ikolomani, the constituency of the promoter, whose social and economic livelihoods rely on gold. Therefore, it is within the place of the Member for Ikolomani to propose a law to regulate gold. A sizable percentage of the population rely on gold, as are other places in the country. Hon. Temporary Speaker, having listened to colleagues contributing to this debate, allow me to be the devil’s advocate this afternoon. This will provoke our thinking so that we may also think broadly and critically. Mining of all minerals in this country is regulated under the Mining Act, 2016. If you look at the citation of this Act, it talks about processing, transportation and value addition of minerals. Section 2 of the Mining Act, 2016 gives the Cabinet Secretary responsible for mining the power to, under the Second Schedule, list the minerals that are subject to the Mining Act and to expand that list. If you go to the Second Schedule of the Mining Act, 2016, you will realise that under precious minerals, gold is listed as among the minerals that are under its management and regulatory purview. Therefore, one fundamental question that I am asking, and it is necessary for Parliament to know, is whether we are processing the Gold Processing Bill because there is a legal deficiency or necessity. In my view, if it is about deficiency in law, I propose the route of coming up with regulations. In the Mining Act, 2016, it is also possible for the Cabinet Secretary to come up with regulations to regulate the details that are not there. We are not required to clutter our legislative book. If we come up with a law to regulate the mining of gold today, there are 136 minerals which are listed in the First Schedule of the Mining Act. Do we, therefore, then come up with other 136 pieces of legislation to regulate every mining of all the other minerals? If we do that, will we be neat legislatively and technically? Secondly, as we debate the Gold Processing Bill that is proposed by the able Member for Ikolomani, we must also be alive to the prevailing circumstances in our country. I want to remind Members of Parliament that last year when this Parliament passed the Finance Bill, 2023 that had proposed several taxation measures, the country rose and said they did not want additional taxes. As a response to that, the Finance Bill of last year did not see the light of the day. In the financial provisions contained in this Bill, we are proposing that Parliament appropriates funds that will run the Gold Processing Corporation. We must ask ourselves whether that is in tune with what Kenyans want at the moment. Thirdly, I also have in mind that last week, the President returned a memorandum relating to the Cotton Bill to the Houses of Parliament. He said we are at a time in our country where we are trying to consolidate our parastatals and state corporations. We do not want new ones because they increase the amount of money that we spend on administration rather than development. The President asked Parliament to amend the Cotton Bill that had been sent to him for assent to remove the part of the administration provisions that will create recurrent expenditures as opposed to development expenditures. Therefore, even as we say that the Gold Processing Corporation is a noble idea, we must also look at it against that. We are aware that there is a Cabinet resolution that is coming to Parliament for processing that proposes the abolishing of many state corporations. In that spirit of reducing the state corporations or our current expenditure, do we also want to propose legislation to add some more state corporations? I am just thinking aloud."
}