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{
    "id": 250432,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/250432/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 203,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Mukiri",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 334,
        "legal_name": "Mukiri Macharia",
        "slug": "mukiri-macharia"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this very important Motion. It is a Motion that needs to be supported. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the issue of oil to an economy is very important. If the prices of fuel are so high this obviously affects our economic growth. Therefore, it is very important that when we address issues of the economy, we have to address the issue of oil prices. As much as this Motion is important, we have to look at why these prices are so high. This is an issue of liberalisation. A lot has been said about liberalisation but if there is a sector where the consumer in this country has been left vulnerable, it is in the fuel sector. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, every time I go to my constituency, I never fuel my car in Nairobi because fuel in Nakuru in my constituency is far much cheaper; it is about Kshs5 cheaper than in Nairobi. I do not understand the logic why fuel in parts of Nakuru, Eldoret and the rest of the country should be far much cheaper than in Nairobi. This is an issue of liberalisation. It is greed. I think as a country we have to address ourselves to the politics of liberalisation. Why should we leave the consumers to be so vulnerable? Why should we leave poor Kenyans at the mercy of these multinationals? Why not regulate some parts of our economy? This is because I do not think we should let the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the rest of the donors dictate to us how we should run our economy. We should not allow them to send their own citizens and multinational companies to come and exploit us. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as much as liberalisation may be good to an economy, I think in this country and especially in the fuel sector, it is not working for us. I think in some other jurisdictions, some countries have refused to liberalise some very important sectors of the economy. We need to look at also whether we have put in enough capacity and explored our other areas of energy. On oil exploration, we have been told by the Government year in, year out, that they have been carrying out oil exploration. We have been told that they have found oil in Malindi and North Eastern Province. We need to know from the Government what they are doing so that Kenya as a country can have its own source of fuel so that we do not leave ourselves to exploitation from these multinationals. If this country had its own oil, I think it would go a long way in fighting this battle whereby we have to bring the prices of fuel down. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think the main problem that we have in this country is greed. Just the other day, we saw on television Kenyans mixing fuel. You find diesel and petrol are being mixed with paraffin. This is because Kenyans would wish to access cheaper fuel but this cannot happen because the oil industry is so controlled by multinationals that the ordinary Kenyans are not able to access cheaper fuel. Therefore, I would ask the Government to take this issue of fuel very seriously. Somebody has already said before that as much as we pass this Motion, we have to address the question of whether or not the Government is going to implement it. There are people who have been advocating that this House now needs to move from passing Motions because we are going to pass this Motion but is the Government going to implement it? I think it is time that as parliamentarians, and the Chair stands condemned, we must change this policy of this House whereby we keep on passing Motions and the Government does not implement them. We must change the Standing Orders so that Parliament now moves from just passing Motions and into May 3, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 869 implementing them so that once we pass an important Motion like this one, the Government is going to implement because that is the law. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}