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"id": 187532,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Midiwo",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me a chance to contribute to this Vote. This is an important Vote at an important moment. First of all, I want to begin by commending this Ministry under this Minister, particularly in the last couple of years. From where I see things as an hon. Member, the Ministry of Energy has done a lot. In the last two or three years, the Ministry of Energy has done more than was done in the last 20 years. I want to ask them to do more. The Ministry has been very responsive to the needs of Members of Parliament. As the Member of Parliament for Gem Constituency, I know that in terms of power supply, things are about 70 per cent better than they were before I became a Member of Parliament. That maybe covers only 5 per cent of the people it should cover. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think the trick is in the management of the newly formed Rural Electrification Authority (REA). I want to appeal to the Ministry to device a business approach to the supply of electricity in rural areas. If the supply of electricity is run as a business, people will pay. In any case, until this week, electricity has always been much cheaper than kerosene or any other form of fuel or energy. If the Ministry of Energy, and particularly the REA, could position transformers in such a manner that would make supplying of electricity to people's homes cheaper, they would have sorted out its problems in terms of finances. Right now, the REA has a small customer base, and they are over-taxing that small base. They should adopt the approach of widening their customer base. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the current policy says that transformers can be placed in a public utility installation such as markets, hospitals, boreholes or secondary schools. A secondary school may need only a few bulbs. If you place a bigger transformer some 500 metres from a school compound, you can connect power to some four or five more homes that would pay money to the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC). The problem is that right now we have many transformers installed for single users. A transmission line can end up to a health centre, and that is it. When another person applies to be supplied with electricity from such a line, he is told that he is beyond the 600 metre radius that is required. The KPLC has tried to deal with that issue, but it has not registered much success. The KPLC has come up with a programme it calls \"Umeme Pamoja\", which has largely remained unmarketed. It is basically a scheme where people are told to 2240 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 30, 2008 pool their resources together so that they can be supplied with electricity. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the cost of electricity should be brought down. The KPLC should look at electricity supply from a business point of view. In many countries, if you were to go into a residence, the power supplier gives you energy. All that you pay for are your bills. The fixation on the amount of monies that have to be paid before somebody gets electricity connected to his home, is where the Ministry and the supplier of electricity are going wrong. The KPLC just needs to fix that one part, and a lot of people would rush for electricity connection. After all, as I have said, until this week, electricity has always been cheaper than any other form of energy in this country, but Kenyans in the rural areas are not aware. So, the trick is in connecting more people to power so that you can make your money based on economies of scale. I know that electricity is limited, but that is so because we are not being innovative enough. I want to appeal to the Government to take charge of every position on a river that can produce power. The so-called Independent Power Producers (IPPs) are inefficient. If the Government could do more, even the Kenya Electricity Generation (KenGen) Company has the capacity to produce enough electricity. In my constituency, there is the so-called Ndano Falls. Research papers show that it can produce up to 32 megawatts of electricity. If you go there, you will find that some villages have fenced the water fall, saying that it is their personal water fall even though they do not have the capacity to generate electricity from it. The Government can, at least, engage KENGEN and take charge of the facility. Let us take a pro- people approach and Kenyans will thank us. I spoke to the Minister for Energy yesterday over the more than 50 per cent increment in our power bills. A businessman from Limuru approached me yesterday. He had been paying an electricity bill of Kshs500,000 per month before the 22 per cent increment of the electricity tariffs and now his current bill is reading Kshs1.2 million. So, something must be done about this, because I do not think Kenyans will take it lightly. In my understanding, this is occasioned by something called \"Cost of Fuel Adjustment\", which needs authority. The way I understand it, nobody was consulted before the electricity bills went up that much. That is not the attitude the Government should have towards Kenyans. Personally, I support the idea of increasing the electricity tariffs, but not this level of increment. An hon. Member said here today that he used to pay an electricity bill of about Kshs5,000, but his current bill is more than Kshs11,000. My own electricity bill shot up from Kshs17,000 to Kshs34,000. I do not think that is going to be taken lightly by Kenyans. That is not the attitude that will encourage the \"small man\" to even do business. When your bill doubles before the effective 22 per cent increment date, something must be wrong. Maybe, something is wrong with the billing system. I am happy that the Departmental Committee on Energy, Communications and Public Works has summoned the Minister for Energy and his team. We want to compromise him, so that there can be no embarrassment. Kenyans are tired of lip service and noise. We can negotiate, so that our people can stop being angry with the Government. If nothing is done about it, the anger that may come by the end of this month may be so much, and I do not think this country can go through that again. Personally, I oppose the doubling of the electricity tariffs based on the cost of fuel. After what we have gone through, this country can afford to even subsidise the KPLC and not invest anywhere else. After all, there is a lot of pork barrel investment in this country; we can cut the pork and make sure that our people get affordable electricity. Lastly, I want to commend the Government for trying to sort out the Mau Forest mess. This is a political problem. We want to appeal to the Government, after commending it, to effect the evictions with a human face. As a Member of Parliament, I want to caution politicians, because Mau Forest was stolen by politicians. Some of those politicians are in this Parliament, and they are July 30, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2241 the ones making the loudest noise about this matter. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we want politicians to be true to their words. What we have been told is that these politicians are the same ones who sold that particular land. With those many remarks, I beg to support."
}