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{
    "id": 187564,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/187564/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 228,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mureithi",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 89,
        "legal_name": "Erastus Kihara Mureithi",
        "slug": "erastus-mureithi"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I stand to support this Motion on the Vote of the Ministry of Energy. As my colleagues have said in this House, energy is the engine of development in any nation. I must commend the Ministry of Energy through the stewardship of the Minister and his staff for the amount of work they have done over a couple of years that have gone. I believe that if they continue like that, we shall light this nation. Most of you have seen the map which says: \"The globe by night\". Africa is really a dark continent. You look at it from Durban all the way to the north and compared to India which has lighted its nation very much, we are still quite far. However, with the current pace of development in terms of power and distribution, we are going to go far. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, having said that, I would like to talk about a business person. The cost of energy in this country--- Most people look at electricity alone. However, I would like to combine it with fuel. The cost of energy is driving business people out of this country. We have lost quite a lot of flower growers from this nation because the cost of business has gone up. It has reached a point where most of them are mechanising in terms of grading. The cost of production in this country has become very high. I would really like to plead with the Minister to go to our neighbour Ethiopia where they connect many of their people with free power. In terms of cost, if they buy their transformers, at the end of their business, they are given the transformer back. It is then treated as an asset within their own company. It is important to compare so that we do not continue saying that we are moving forward yet we are losing many people in terms of business who go and create employment in another country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me turn to one point that is dear to me; theft of transformers. Last week we lost a transformer next to a dispensary. I think the people who are stealing the transformers have no mercy. I know the Minister has issued a ban on export of electrical goods, but I think there should be an enforcement wing of the Government. They should check contractors. A contractor comes and steals Government equipment and makes it their own and sell it to the Government. That is an issue that must be looked into. A human being that can go and steal a transformer outside a dispensary must have some ulterior motives. I would like to request the Government to make sure they find out what is happening in terms of the issue of losing transformers. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would also like to say that these power lines that the Minister has given us, when brought to your constituency the people's expectations go very high. However, because they are high voltage lines and you go there as a Member of Parliament and tell them they cannot be connected just because the voltage is very high, we get very demoralised. I would like to request the Minister for Energy that as these high voltage lines pass through various areas, let it not be like the water that comes from Nyandarua goes to Nakuru then Rumuruti but the people surrounding that area never get it. They get so demoralised because they are told to plant trees so that we get more water just to feed residents of Nakuru, Rumuruti and Naivasha and yet they themselves go without water. Let electricity be an exemption. Where the power lines pass, the communities should benefit. That is one of the issues that I have been fighting. When I go to my constituency and tell July 30, 2008 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 2251 people that they cannot get power, the first thing they show me are the power lines. They, normally, tell me those power lines were not meant for birds to be landing on, but they are meant to supply us with electricity. I have come to the conclusion that when I was working in the Government and elsewhere, the emergency section of the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) was fantastic---"
}