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"id": 181684,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/181684/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Murungi",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Energy",
"speaker": {
"id": 93,
"legal_name": "Kiraitu Murungi",
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"content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to thank hon. Members of Parliament for raising this important matter. We are also feeling it. I am actually aware of the pain and suffering that Kenyans are going through because of high petroleum prices in this country. I do not need to elaborate. It is also true that when the prices of crude oil go up, the oil companies in Kenya increase the pump prices immediately. However, when the international prices come down, those prices do not come down immediately or in the proportion that they should come. As the Government, we have on many occasions pleaded and begged the oil companies to reduce these prices in tandem with the fall of international oil prices, but all our pleas, as the hon. Members have said, have fallen on deaf ears. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, no other person than His Excellency the President, gave a directive that the prices should come down by at least, Kshs8. They did not. On analysis, as the Ministry, we said that they should come down by Kshs10. They did not. I saw Rev. Musyimi here and he can bear me witness that the Bible says: \"Knock and knock and the doors will open for you\". I have knocked and knocked on the doors of the multinational companies, but the doors still remain closed. They remain sterile and my knock remains futile. 3114 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE October 29, 2008 Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Government is not impotent as one Member has said. The only reason why I have not exercised my powers, which are conferred to me by the Energy Act, Section 102(w), to determine oil prices in this country is because I thought we had moved away from price controls. We thought that we are in a market economy where the laws of supply and demand should operate. But these laws do not seem to give us the desired results. In fact, if you look at the entire global economy today, you will find that the fundamentals of capitalism are being challenged. Just like we have seen in the United States of America where the Government is no longer shy in intervening to save the banks, our own Government has to take some extra-ordinary measures to respond to this extra-ordinary situation. It is our duty as the Government to protect our people from exploitation. As the Minister for Energy, I have decided to take the following measures under the Act, and I hope that the Members will support me. First, the Energy Regulatory Commission will, within the next two weeks, publish a legal notice fixing domestic oil prices at a maximum of 7 per cent above the landed cost of the product. That should give them some operating margin. Secondly, we are also publishing a legal notice to empower NOCK to import a maximum of 30 per cent of the entire petroleum products which are consumed in the country. We also want to make the NOCK a major player in the distribution of petroleum products in this country. Consequently, the Government is supporting NOCK to acquire 86 new petrol stations which are on sale by Caltex. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have also decided, as the Government, to move away from thermal generation towards non-thermal generation because most of the petroleum products in this country are used for generation of electricity. We are, therefore, asking the Government to improve our budget allocation to improve the development of geothermal resources by an annual supplement of Kshs10 billion, so that we can move away from thermal generated electricity to geothermal generated electricity. This country has a lot of geothermal resources. We can supply all the country's needs from geothermal sources. So, we will be requiring your support for enhanced budget support for our geothermal development. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are also intensifying our search for oil and gas in this country. We have 38 exploration blocks in our sedimentary basins. We have allocated 19 blocks to various international companies. I am on a search to give away the remaining 19 blocks so that the entire blocks in the country are fully explored. We hope that with this intensified programme, the chances for discovering our own oil and gas are going to be improved."
}