HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 210073,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/210073/?format=api",
"text_counter": 149,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Syongo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 316,
"legal_name": "Zaddock Madiri Syong'oh",
"slug": "zaddock-syongoh"
},
"content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wanted to say that even as we use oil, especially petroleum oil, I would also like to urge the Minister to consider the side effects like pollution. Presently, we are in danger because European Union (EU) standards on carbon emissions is really worrying me. Our exports in horticulture and floriculture might actually be targeted. I would like to urge the Minister to liaise with his colleague in the transport industry to do something about air pollution. In that respect, Songo Songo in Tanzania is producing huge quantities of gas. Why can we not make a deal with Tanzania and bring in gas and make it mandatory for all urban transport vehicles to use gas, like India has done in Delhi. If you go to Delhi, it is a much cleaner city than it was before they started using gas to power the buses, taxes and so on to reduce urban pollution. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, my colleagues have talked about the coal in Kitui. I do not see why we cannot have fuel investment in that particular area. There is already data on that matter. There are 24 square kilometres of deposits. I do not know how deep the deposit is but that would help us especially with the heavy industries such as cement production, steel production and the processing industries in the agro-industry sectors. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other issue is coal generation. I think we have been too slow. I, myself, feel a bit disappointed because when I was in the Ministry of Trade and Industry, we held several discussions with several countries who were willing to finance us. For example, India offered, through Exim Bank, to fund coal generation in all our sugar mills. They actually identified strategic investors. Why are we not encouraging our sugar mills to produce coal to the maximum so that, not only will we make our sugar industry profitable, but we can also contribute to the national grid by using biogas that we are not utilising fully? I believe the same can happen with urban solid waste. It is happening everywhere else in this world, except Kenya. Nairobi produces enormous quantities of solid waste. That can be used and, in the process, we can kill two birds with one stone. One, we will deal with solid waste management and secondly, we will generate electricity using the same. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me address the issue of bio-fuels. I know that a number of countries are saying that we should go the bio-fuel way. I know that America is actually producing and investing a lot in that area. But, in Africa, the moment you start thinking about bio- fuels, then they talk about food security. I want to challenge that notion. I believe that if we, for example, got into large scale production of geotropa and millet for purposes of producing bio-fuels, specifically ethanol and bio-diesel, we will have brought into production large tracts of land which are currently lying idle in arid and semi-arid districts. We will also create employment for those people and ensure that they also have a fair share of infrastructural development. So, why can we not take that up, collaborate with the Ministry of Agriculture and upscale that thing? It can be done! The demand is there. So, why do we not do it? I know Kenyan farmers. You give them incentives and some little cash to invest and they will explode the production. I know that because they have done it in various sectors like tea, sugar and 3074 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES August 8, 2007 so on. They can do it. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the final question that I want to raise on the issue is with regard to Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC). During the Supplementary Budget, the Minister for Finance - and I remember questioning him--- He brought the Supplementary Estimates here and we approved Kshs1.3 billion to KPLC in order to meet its contractual commitments to KenGen. The status of KPLC, especially when you take public funds and give it to KPLC meet its contractual obligations to KenGen, that is an issue that we must question. That is because, as Kenyans, we have a responsibility to ensure that things are done in a transparent manner, and that we are accountable for every decision. Even more so, that money could actually have been used for other purposes, including health. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}