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{
"id": 233882,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/233882/?format=api",
"text_counter": 166,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mr. J. Nyagah",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 269,
"legal_name": "Joseph Nthiga Nyagah",
"slug": "joseph-nyagah"
},
"content": "I have been watching what has happened in Uganda as regards the power sector. I have seen serious problems of the inability of the Government of Uganda to supply electricity to its people. This is because Uganda's economy has been growing but there has not been serious development of new sources of energy or hydro-power stations in that country. I know that it is not easy to find funding for some of these very big projects, because sometimes the donor community is very strict in the terms and conditions that they impose on our countries when we want to borrow money for some of our power expansion programmes. I have read in the newspapers, in the last few months, about a controversy, or problems, between the KPLC and the KenGen. I hope the Government will resolve this problem, because it is not good for the country for our two key players in the energy industry to have disagreements over the charges which affect the consumers. I hope that the Minister, now that we have a full time Minister who has been there before, and who, hopefully, understands the industry, will resolve this impasse that exists between the two critical players in the energy sector. Those of us from energy-supplying areas hope that the KenGen and the KPLC will continue playing an important role in the discharge of their corporate responsibility. We hope that those of us who reside along the power stations will benefit from the KenGen and the KPLC in terms of construction of schools and water projects in these areas, so that our people can benefit. Our people who are often attacked and killed by crocodiles in hydro-electric dams should be compensated in one way or the other. Even if it is not financially, they should be compensated in form of construction of schools, roads and other facilities. I would like to thank the KenGen for what it has done in my area and urge it to do more, so that the good relationship that we enjoy can continue. A major source of power in this country is geothermal. A few years ago, I visited Iceland. I was very impressed by that country to see that almost the entire country is heated by energy supplied from geothermal. I hope that the Ministry will continue to exploit the huge reserves that exist in the Rift Valley Province. I hope that it will find the funding that is necessary. If institutions 3790 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 21, 2006 like the IMF and the World Bank become difficult, I am sure there are many donors in the world today who are more than willing to assist our country in solving our energy problems. We hope that we will see more private sector investments in this sector, particularly in geothermal. This is because if we continue to depend on hydro-electric power, we will mess up our environment. We know that the sources of our water are Mount Kenya, the Aberdares and the Mau Hills. If we only depend on hydro power, it means that one of these days we will have a serious shortage of water to run our hydro-electric power stations. We experienced this problem some years back, and I hope that alternative sources will be exploited by the Ministry for the benefit of this country. We have heard a lot about oil exploration in this country. I am not an expert in this field. All that I hope is that we will find some oil in this country to benefit our people. I also pray that we do not find so much oil that we become a corrupt nation that every country that is involved in oil production becomes. I, therefore, hope that we shall just find enough for our people, so that we do not have to export this commodity. If we export it, my fear is that there will be corruption of the highest order. Our country will then get into chaos like other oil producing countries. My prayer is that we find just enough for our consumption, so that we do not have to export it. The savings that we will make on the importation of oil can then be used for other things. I want to thank Parliament for the initiative it is taking to control oil prices. It is too expensive. I know that doing that will take us backwards in terms of modern economic management. But when oil companies refuse to be responsible, what choice does Parliament have except to resort to primitive and backward policies like price control as a method of ensuring that oil companies stop earning extraordinary profits? They should make reasonable profits and not profits that are abnormal and mess up our economy. Finally, I hope that we will continue looking for alternative sources of energy. The former Acting Minister for Energy has just told us that there is cheap oil, and sources of energy in Ethiopia. I hope that we will look at ways and means of connecting with Ethiopia. There was an effort to connect to Tanzania. I hope the Ministry is still looking at that issue. I hope that the Ministry is looking at ways and means of connecting to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), so that we can reduce the price of energy in this country. In that way, our industries will be competitive and our products will be exported at prices that make sense. We will become the competitive nation that we would all like to be associated with. With those few remarks, I wish to thank the Minister and support this particular Bill."
}