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{
"id": 233696,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/233696/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. Wetangula",
"speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs",
"speaker": {
"id": 210,
"legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
"slug": "moses-wetangula"
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"content": " Thank you, Prof. Olweny. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was proposing that a way be found on how to strengthen the NOCK, make it competitive and make it to routinely and regularly respond to changing oil prices, so that it becomes a viable alternative to the profiteering multinationals that have got very little feelings about Kenyans. If we did that, it is better than going to the dark days of the Government fixing prices of consumer goods in a liberalised world. That will not be the right thing to do. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Departmental Committee on Energy, Communications and Public Works should rise to its expected duties and look at what NOCK does. They should challenge them to deal with the issues of petroleum prices. I listened to the Chairman of that Committee yesterday and he just glossed over issues. He did not go into any detail. One would have thought it was an informed debate on this very critical Bill. This is a terrible indictment on that Committee. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to support the issue of the setting up of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC). However, I would like to suggest that the ERC, which will see the exit of the Electricity Regulatory Board (ERB) from the scene, under the Electric Power Act (EPA), be expanded so that we have a Director-General and two directors under the Director- General. As a result of the magnitude of the sectors of electricity and oil, I think it is important that we have a Director-General of the Commission and two other directors; a director dealing with petroleum and a director dealing with electric energy, so that there can be sufficient attention. In fact, the current ERB does not have to be scrapped but to be restructured to be part of the umbrella under the Director-General of the Energy Regulatory Commission. The Commission should be, as 3896 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 22, 2006 is expected of it, independent and have the capacity to run the affairs of the industry. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Bill also addresses the issue of rural electrification. I want to commend the Ministry for the fact that for the first time in the history of this country you can see that there is a co-ordinated and organised approach to rural electrification. Every single constituency has some programme on rural electrification going on. This is critical. All the bottlenecks that have been registered in terms of capacity and lack of sufficient contractors need to be addressed so that all the funds allocated to the Rural Electrification Programme are put to good use. This is so because we are in the IT age. Every school in this country is expected within the very near future to have electricity or some forms of energy to enable students to access computers. Even where there is no electricity, one would expect that a proper formula is in place to provide solar energy which can also give access to our rural population. When you look at the percentages, we are told that only 16 per cent of the people of Kenya have access to electricity. Out of those, only five per cent in the rural areas have access to electricity. This percentage is too small. One would expect that after the power has been taken to market centres and schools, the next phase should be for the Ministry to go out of its way to allocate money to step down power in as many places as possible and access it to ordinary people. The people just want to access clean energy to run a little fridge in the house, a television and some light. I would support the view by a Member who spoke yesterday that we need to have some preferential tariffs on electricity. The people in the rural areas whose needs are only simple lighting and running a fridge and a television should be given tariffs that are preferential. Tax the rich to help the poor. That is what many countries do. If you can charge people in our bracket double what you charge the ordinary people, it is affirmative action for the rural people who will also access modern living. Equally, one of the benefits of rural electrification, especially to small markets and small towns is to help create an enabling environment to arrest rural-urban migration. If you have electricity in local markets, people can create jobs; Jua Kali, fabrication of steel doors, windows and so on. Furthermore, you find that we need to have, as a priority, rural electrification being targeted to youth polytechnics. We have a lot of youth polytechnics in this country that need to train our people in fabrications, welding and all manner of things, and they will be able to do so if they access electricity. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, something that I have not understood in this day and age is the fact the Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited is now employing white people to manage the organisation. More than 40 years after Independence, I do not believe that we do not have sufficient capacity to run a utility like that. I understand there are some Canadians and some white men from somewhere who are running the company. I want to urge the Ministry to get rid of these white people. I do not know under what circumstances they came to run the company. We have enough capacity in this country who will earn less and do a better job. It is a laughable matter that we get persons who are ill-qualified but because of the advantage of skin colour, they have to come here and be deployed to run our utilities. I do not know under what circumstances these white people are here. But whatever the case, we do not need any foreigners to run our utilities."
}