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{
    "id": 372195,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/372195/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 298,
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    "content": "Speaker, Dr. Laboso, about REA. It is true that REA has done a wonderful job. Unfortunately, the world being what it is, I am told that the Managing Director of REA has been sacked. I do not know whether it is true or false. When we talk about Vision 2030 and energy is not being addressed then we are wasting time. When you talk about employment for the youth, you cannot give youth employment by sending money to the constituencies. They will squander it. Our request as Parliament is to address this issue of energy very quickly. I am told that Kenya has the highest cost of energy in the world. As you are aware, if your energy costs are high, your productivity is either low or whatever you produce is very expensive and so it is not market friendly. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we are talking about heavy industry. Without this you cannot industrialize. You cannot be technologically savvy if you do not do heavy industrialization. You cannot do heavy industries with expensive energy. We have just come back from Korea as a Parliamentary delegation. They are using nuclear energy so that their energy costs have come down drastically to below 30 per cent of the production cost. In Kenya, energy costs are going up to 60 per cent or 70 per cent. The Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) is always crying about this. If you do not reduce the cost of energy you cannot create jobs for our youth. If you want to create jobs for the youth let us not have a youth fund; let us allow entrepreneurs to produce cheaply so that they can have a bigger capacity and then employ a lot of our youth. That way, our job at the school level will be to train the youth. You cannot train our youth if secondary schools and universities lack electricity to facilitate proper learning in the area of technology. We are looking at Kenya Power. This is a monopoly. We have a problem. It has been said on the Floor that you are at their whims when you want their services be it that you want connection or your electrical equipments have blown up. They do not give a damn. If we bring competition, we will bring this industry back to sense. I propose what I had the Speaker saying that if we pass Motions here, we should pray that they go on to be Bills so that they end up being laws. I am surprised by the sentiments aired by some hon. Members that Cabinet Secretaries will not implement what we pass in this House. We are the third arm of Government. What we pass here and becomes law must be obeyed by all and sundry. If you are within the boundaries of Kenya, you must accept and follow the law that emanates from this House. The issue of implementation is not an option; it is a must. This Motion is long overdue. We would like energy to be addressed as agenda number one in Kenya. If we do not address energy then we will not do anything. In fact, Vision 2030 will remain a pipe dream. That is not what we want. We want it to go on. The President and his deputy are digital. If they are digital, we must support them by giving them affordable energy. We have to liberalize distribution of power first. I support."
}