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{
    "id": 233895,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/233895/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 179,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. M'Mukindia",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 271,
        "legal_name": "Kirugi Joseph Laiboni M'Mukindia",
        "slug": "kirugi-mmukindia"
    },
    "content": "Otherwise, if we leave this loophole, it is endangering the whole country. I have nothing against the Minister or his technocrats, but it is our responsibility as elected Members to ensure that where we see a danger to this country, we blow the whistle at the earliest possible opportunity. This is the area that I really believe that we ought not allow our Bill to go through unless a proper amendment is brought to ensure that this area is covered. We all know these things. We know the war in Angola is because of oil and diamonds. We know the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo is because of natural resources wealth. There are no laws in those countries as to how these natural resources will be managed for the benefit of the country. Leaving this to the Permanent Secretary and the Minister is exposing them to very dangerous times either to them at a personal level or as a Ministry. We must debate this matter and adopt what is good for this country. I propose, therefore, that in bringing an amendment, either we expand the role of the Commission to cover possible fuel exploration, production and so on, or create a totally new body or allocate responsibility to somebody else. But it cannot be left merely hanging in the air without anybody specifically responsible for this area and how they can be accountable to the nation and to Parliament. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to encourage the Ministry to think carefully about transparency in terms of extractive industry. Again, it falls on this issue of having blood diamonds or blood natural resources which do not help the citizens and end up just creating one war after another. Kenya must be prepared to join the international community that created this Extractive Industries Transparency International to ensure that we are transparent in the way we manage the funds that we get from any natural resource. We ought to do this to ensure that we do not have a 3798 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 21, 2006 problem that other countries in Africa have. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also wish to join hands with my colleagues in saying we should not be afraid of doing something in so far as nuclear energy is concerned. I think if countries like the USA are now designing new plants for nuclear fuel production, we should do it as far as it is for peaceful usage. I think we can do that as long as we go by International Atomic Energy Agency Regulations and we should be able to gain a lot in this area. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I also want to thank and encourage the Ministry in the way they are handling the geothermal area. I think KenGen is doing a very good job and we want to encourage them in this area. But while geothermal is one area, I think the area of biomas has been totally ignored. Secondly, let us have a regulatory mechanism on fossil fuel exploration, production, storage, marketing and so on, so that we have a transparent way of handling this thing. Knowing from the media and all reports that the exploration exercise is entering into another phase, it is even more urgent that the Minister, within the next one day or so, brings in amendments to this Bill before people in Lamu start doing something. This is very important because if we discovered oil today, the politics of this country will change and we may not be able to pass this Bill here. You and I know that, that is true and so we have to do it today. This week, we have to pass this Bill because we do not know what will happen next week. Again, this is a very dangerous thing and we cannot afford to leave it in the hands of one or two people. We are talking about the potential wealth of this country which is so many billions of US dollars. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I would like to urge hon. Members to push for this amendment."
}