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{
    "id": 235680,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/235680/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 269,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Odoyo",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 340,
        "legal_name": "Peter Ochieng Odoyo",
        "slug": "peter-odoyo"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I wish to add my voice to those hon. Members who support this Motion. I believe that petrol affects our lives far beyond an ordinary commodity. In addition to affecting transport, petrol affects the poor, especially those who 3494 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 8, 2006 use kerosene. Petrol increases the prices of transportation. Today, a worker in Nairobi spends almost 40 percent of his or her income on transport. The figures given by Mr. Ojode of our workers coming from Mathare and Kibera are true. Most of them would rather prefer to walk to their places of work, leading to loss of man-hours because they get to work late, day in, day out. If you look at the kind of goods that the poor spend their money on, you will find that energy consumes a large chunk of that budget. Many of the urban poor use kerosene and charcoal. When the price of kerosene rises, as it has been doing for the last five years, the poor in Kenya get poorer. We must protect the majority of Kenyans who live below the minimum standard of living. Time has reached for this House to take concrete steps towards addressing those issues that affect the majority of Kenyans. One of the issues affecting Kenyans is energy. The regulating capacity that has been put on energy is not correct. The regulating regime is false. The Minister has little powers under the so- called regime of liberation. Open markets do not work anywhere. My colleague, Capt. Nakitare, who is a farmer, knows that in the USA, they control the prices of wheat, sugar and all the basic commodities that affect the common man. In Kenya, kerosene affects the common man. I would like to give some advice to the Government. First and foremost, we need to have a regulating authority that does some work on the petroleum sector because it is controlled by foreigners. There is only one Kenyan-owned company, which is Kobil. Kobil controls less than 15 percent of the market. The bulk of the processing money goes outside. The Government spends most of the money meant for foreign exchange on energy. Many a time, the control of the petroleum sector by foreigners has meant that our Government has been blackmailed day in, day out. Time has come for us to ask our Government why we do not have a company controlled by Kenyans having a majority stake in the market share of the petroleum industry, so that we are able to control some of these costs that are being passed on to the poor. We are getting poorer and poorer, while the \"seven sisters\" or as hon. Ojode called them the \"five sisters\" in the oil industry, are getting richer and richer by the hour."
}