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"id": 233893,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/233893/?format=api",
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"speaker_name": "Mr. M'Mukindia",
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"speaker": {
"id": 271,
"legal_name": "Kirugi Joseph Laiboni M'Mukindia",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would have liked to see a little bit more in the areas of many hydros and bio-mass. I do not think this Bill goes far enough to highlight the importance of the supply of electricity in the rural areas using many hydros. 3796 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 21, 2006 As Mr. Raila said earlier on, if you visit places like Meru, especially in my constituency, there are five rivers where electricity can be generated and supplied more effectively around the area than having power distributed all the way from Kindaruma Dam. It makes a lot of economic sense. This will encourage local employment, local technology transfer and so on. I do not know how the ERC will ensure that this is done. Rather than the ERC merely being a regulator sitting in Nairobi and hoping that this happens, it should be pro-active. It is not clear how this will be done. Saying that we will leave it to the forces of the market, especially the private sector, for example, is not good enough. Again, whoever invests in that area will have to make money out of it. Is this feasible or will it be financed by the Rural Electrification Fund (REF)? This is not quite clear, but this is something that can come up, perhaps in the rules or regulations. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there are two areas which have not been covered properly. As I have mentioned, one is that of the bio-mass. I want to strongly support what Mr. Raila said a few minutes ago, that the setting up of the Agro-Chemical and Food Company (ACFC) in the 1980s and the Kisumu Molasses Plant (KMP), were purely meant to mitigate the effect of high petroleum prices in this country and save Kenya foreign exchange. That reason is still valid today, irrespective of who owns those plants or whatever happened. If there is a culprit somewhere, the law should take its course. However, we should not take away from Kenyans this gain. It is for that reason that the Ministry must be very clear. Could we go back to blending petrol and gasohol with power alcohol? It makes a lot of sense not only for saving money, but also making money for our own people who are planting sugar-cane. This will also create jobs for the people who were working with ACFC, Muhoroni and the KMP. This will also encourage Mumias Sugar Company (MSC), Sony Sugar Company (SSC) and Nzoia Sugar Company (NSC) to create facilities to make power alcohol out of the bio-mass that they have, apart from, of course, generating electricity as they are doing at the moment. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, talking about alternative sources of energy, let me take this opportunity to recognise a concept that is very new in this country. I am happy that I see the top officials of the Ministry of Energy here, including the Permanent Secretary and the Managing Director of the KenGen. A week or so ago, we saw that Kenya will sell carbon. We want to encourage other companies to take a cue from what KenGen has done to actually benefit from the World Bank carbon credit trading system. We know the potential there is huge, but we need people with imagination, who can get the benefits for this country. There is no point of KenGen going out of their way to sell this carbon credit and here we are with ACFC and NSC, and we do not want to take the credits. It does not make sense. Therefore, if we have to be consistent, we must follow what KenGen is doing, by taking over what ACFC was doing and what KMP should be doing and encouraging the NSC to produce power alcohol. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, that is only on the issue of petroleum products, but how about bio-diesel? There is no mention of bio-diesel in this Bill. Kenya has the potential to produce all the diesel we need in this country. We do not need to import diesel. There are plants in this country and worldwide that can be used to produce bio-diesel. India is an example of a country where this is being successfully done. The Jatropha is one of the major plants, which we can grow in the whole of Ukambani, Isiolo and Tharaka. This plant does not need to be tended. You plant it, it produces fruit with oil of up to 35 per cent. At this stage, you squeeze it and you get diesel straight away. That employs people and ensures our country is green. That means you can also sell it as carbon black again. Why is there no mention of this extremely important issue of bio-fuel in general? I want to tell the Minister that this is a very big omission and I think that at the Committee Stage, he should see how best he can ensure that the Energy Commission puts some effort and money into promoting not just bio-fuel but bio-diesel in particular. I know that already some people in this country are trying to do this work on their own, without much support from the Ministry. I understand the Minister has a lot in his hands. But once November 21, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 3797 this Commission is set up, then they ought to have the ability and the man-power to ensure that this very important area is not ignored. In fact, it should be actively promoted to ensure that those who live in the very dry areas of our country benefit by producing energy from those lands. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other area that the Minister has not covered in this Bill, which I think is a major omission, is the area of exploration, production, storage, transportation and shipping or marketing of crude oil, natural gas, coal and other bituminous fossils. I must also declare my interest in this matter. I have been a Minister for Energy before and I know these things. I also have family members working in this industry. So, hon. Moi knows I resigned from his Committee because of that. Nevertheless, the facts are very clear. This is an industry I have worked in for many years. The thing is, natural resources all over Africa have been more of a curse than a blessing. In the current magazine from the Petroleum Institute of East Africa, one of the officers there went to Nigeria. You should see the pictures of that lady in a pool of oil in the Nigerian delta. You cannot believe that companies like Shell and Mobil who talk about environmental protection and good governance are the ones who are drilling oil in that delta today. You cannot understand why the Nigerians keep killing each other every day and the people in Shell, London, Chevron, New York and Houston are driving the biggest cars in the world. There is a big danger that this country may discover huge amounts of oil. Is that going to be a curse or a blessing? The Minister must be encouraged by this House, and I want to encourage Members that this is not an issue to put off until tomorrow. It is an urgent matter that must be addressed by this House in this Bill. Therefore, the Departmental Committee on Energy, Communications and Public Works must bring an amendment to ensure that the issue of how we manage potential crude oil discovery in this country, natural gas, the coal in Ukambani and many other places, for the benefit of the people of this country is clarified."
}