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{
    "id": 234282,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/234282/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 88,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Capt. Nakitare",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 348,
        "legal_name": "Davis Wafula Nakitare",
        "slug": "davis-nakitare"
    },
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to start my contribution by thanking Mr. Ojode for moving this Motion. It is high time the Petroleum Act, Cap.116 of the Laws of Kenya was revised. In 1981, there was a conference in this country with the concerns of introducing or looking into methods of the use of new and renewable energy to save the future of this country and the globe. Why should we have mini-budgets again? These mini-budgets were very prevalent in the 1970s. Why should we allow petroleum companies to control the lives of Kenyans? This is enslaving our nationals and the economy of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, a while ago, a woman was referred to as a beast of burden. Pictures were shown in newspapers of a mother carrying firewood on her head and back demonstrating the waste and destruction of wood fuel. The only solace was that the substitute of wood to save forests was kerosene. The Minister was very humble in the Budget to consider reducing petroleum products. The Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is not a way of life for Kenyans. That is completely oriental. Mothers in the countryside do not even know how to use LPG for cooking purposes. If you look at how the LPG can be transformed into lighting, it becomes even more expensive than the price reduction in the Budget. We have to consider the fact that we have come from the past. Developed countries are coming from the future while we are coming from the past. We are now meeting mid-way. This kind of situation has forced us to reduce our lives to ashes. Price controls were a way of gauging the development of this country. However, this House can take the blame for having introduced a Bill 3656 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 15, 2006 liberalising and privatising institutions which were really meant to build and develop this country. Kenya is in tears. When you look at travelling impediments caused by the price rise, who suffers? It is the low income earners who suffer. When you see slum dwellers suffering, that is an emblem or torch to tell us that the mother in the rural area during the rainy season like now, where firewood cannot be found, and if it is available, it is wet, is having a hard time. In this kind of weather, that mother is not in a position to make food for her family. Are we not destroying ourselves? We need to improve on the laws that we pass here. The Bills that we pass here must not be cosmetic. We should not make laws to please one person and hurt the other. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the price of charcoal is now as high as that of kerosene. There is no electricity in the rural areas. A mother who has school going children in the rural areas is really suffering. Even if we talk about the Rural Electrification Programme (REP), who will benefit? About 90 per cent of Kenyans are poor. They are not in a position to meet the high electricity bills from the Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC). Are we not adding a burden to our people? Why can we not find it necessary to revise and give the Minister power to have control the price increase in fuel? Our country indicated that the cost of fuel was based on poor transport structures and this introduced the pipeline. We thought that the prices would be reduced because crude oil or fuel is being pumped from Mombasa inland, but that was not the case. What is the importance of pegging our money against the Dollar when we have no purchasing power? Kenya does not have gold and, therefore, if we open our doors in terms of pleasing the master, we are strangling our country. There will be no improvement. Emphasis must be given to renewable energy. To be competitive, this Government should put in enough money into solar and wind energies. We should move away from the use of petroleum, if the use of petrol will hurt the economy of the country. Kenya must look for an alternative of sustaining herself. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}