HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 187539,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/187539/?format=api",
"text_counter": 203,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wambugu",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 149,
"legal_name": "Clement Muchiri Wambugu",
"slug": "clement-wambugu"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, thank you for giving me this chance to contribute to this very important Vote. Let me first congratulate the Minister for Energy, his team, the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC), KenGen and the Permanent Secretary for coming up with this proposed budget to request for funding. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me say that it is the first time, after a long time, that we have an indication of how we are going to achieve our goals in the Vision 2030. I was listening to what the Minister said yesterday about trying to support the socio-economic transformation in this country, and that we should be concentrating on expanding and upgrading the energy sector and other areas. I will be brief because most of the issues have been talked about. There are other areas which we need to concentrate on more, like research into the sources of energy. When I was in school, I was told that the definition of energy was that energy is the ability to do work. That is what we need to go for. The main sources of energy that we have in this country are hydro-electric energy, that is electricity from our rivers; we have power-based energy, that is electricity from oil; we have wood energy, we have wind energy and energy from coal. Recently, the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife came up with a good idea by introducing a plant they call \"Jetropha\". For a long time we have heard about some factories that were supposed to be giving us some fuel like the Molasses plant in Kisumu. Other sources of energy like nuclear energy, solar energy and geothermal energy from the volcanic activities in the Rift Valley. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is time we took positive action to develop those resources that we have. I remember that when I was in school, there was a programme which was being run by the KPLC, of sponsoring some of the best students in this country to the university. I hope that the programme is still on, and if it is not it would be good for the KPLC, or even KenGen, to adopt such a programme so that we can have more people within the energy research industry. Regarding the issue of utilising the rivers that we have for hydro-electric energy, many rivers in this country are completely under-utilised. There is something in the Budget to support that. They say that they are going to promote the production of hydro-electricity in this country. I understand that the Ministry of Energy, or KenGen, is suggesting that they are going to partner with 2242 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES July 30, 2008 some of the small hydro-electric power generators to be able to buy the little electricity that they generate. But I request KenGen that, rather than waiting until the small producers come up with a programme, it should go around the country, and to the areas where there are rivers, and encourage the residents in those areas to partner with them so that they can come up with some hydro-power stations. In my constituency, there are two projects of that nature, but due to lack of funding, they have stalled for a long time. We request the KPLC, or the KenGen, to come to our assistance. Regarding oil exploration, for a long time, since the 1980s, this matter has been a topic which has been discussed. We have heard many times that oil exploration is taking place in this country, but, unfortunately, we have never got any results. We only hear that there is something happening in Marsabit, North Eastern Province or in Rift Valley. It would be good if the Ministry of Energy could come up and advise Kenyans on the status of some of these projects that are going on, because Kenyans are becoming impatient. Every time we hear that there is a lot of money being pumped into oil exploration, but nothing comes out of it. We need to know and get the facts about what is happening. I understand that the Ministry of Energy is coming up with a programme called \"the Kenya Energy Sector Environment and Social Responsibility Programme\". It is a good programme when it is written on paper, but, unfortunately, this programme could only be known to the people in the offices of the Ministries, but the idea has not come to the local mwananchi, who could support some of the programmes positively. I request the KPLC, the KenGen and the Ministry of Energy to move out of Nairobi and district headquarters and start teaching our people how they can team up with them to support these programmes. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have a lot of flat land in the north eastern region, and that is where we have got the advantage of harnessing wind power. There are some write-ups by the Ministry, but we would like to see something happening. For the last five or ten years, Kenyans have talked of wind energy, but it looks like there is nothing that is coming up. We would like to see these things happening. Recently, there was the issue of coal deposits around Ukambani area. All these things are talked about in Parliament, in the Ministries and so on, but we see very little in terms of implementation of some of the programmes. As an earlier speaker said, if we were able to get coal for producing some extra energy we would move a great step forward. Unfortunately, coal has environmental impact. There was a discussion sometime back about coal and environmental impact. I do not what the Ministry said about it. But what we are interested in is getting coal and we start moving a head. The other issue is about the plant called \"Jetropha\". There is no information about this plant. I understand that out of a kilo of Jetropha you can get about Kshs1,500. I understand that the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife is trying to discourage the introduction of this plant in some parts of Central Province. That plant would enable us to make money and get more fuel. We request the Ministry to encourage our farmers within the central Rift Valley to get into that. Regarding the issue of nuclear energy, as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, if we could invest in it, then we would solve many problems within the energy sector. It would be good if the Ministry came up with proper programmes to encourage Kenyans to invest in the energy sector. Rather than taking their money out of this country and investing it elsewhere, they should invest in the nuclear sector. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kenya lies within the equatorial region where we have a lot of sun. Almost 90 per cent of our time, we have a lot of sun but unfortunately we have not been able to tap it. This is because we have not been able to educate our people or even invest properly within the solar industry. I would also request the Ministry to see what it can do about that so that the areas where we cannot be able to get electrical cables, we could go out there and see whether we can install some solar panels for our people to be able to get energy to drive their July 30, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2243 machines. Kenya as a country is developing quite fast and I think we need to develop as much. With those remarks, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support."
}