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"content": "suffered displacement and lack of the benefit of what they were usually endowed with, like in this case, grazing land for their cattle, is compensated in such a way that they will feel part and parcel of the project. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I listened and read in the newspapers that in the case of Turkana County, Ngamia I, Ngamia II and Ngamia III are being heavily guarded. I asked myself: From whom are they being heavily guarded? If only the Government, from the outset, makes the community part and parcel of the project and enjoys the benefits that accrue from the project, this community will then turn themselves into the guardians of this project. Why should the Government spend billions and withdraw all security forces from that county, to guard Ngamia I, Ngamia II and Ngamia III? Now we are told that they have even gotten another well. Are we guarding these wells from the host community, that is, the Turkana people, who really are supposed to be the first beneficiaries? If we make them understand that the drilling of oil in their midst is going to give them schools, better roads, good medication and better hospitals, this community in Turkana County will jealously guard the wells and nobody will interfere with them. I think that this should be the Government policy. Let us not just contain it as a policy, because there has always existed a gap between policy formulation and implementation within Government structures. Can we bridge that gap and ensure that such beautiful and very effective policies are implemented, so that the people in Turkwel Gorge, in this case, are fully compensated, because this was their ancestral land and they do not know any other land. Their way of life was interrupted because they are pastoralists. Now, when you take such a big chunk of land from them, you are actually destabilizing their economic activity and livelihood. They should not only be compensated, but the Government, by extension, must compel private companies that undertake such economic activities within a given community to build social amenities such as schools, dispensaries and access roads. In this case, for a people who have suffered an injustice already, for 22 years, they should be compensated not just at current rates, but even bearing in mind the suffering that they have undergone, the lives that they have lost for 22 years and all the inconveniences that they have gone through because of having to give out their land for this dam. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, look at the case of the Niger Delta in Nigeria. The Government of Nigeria is now spending billions, fighting with armed militia, who feel that despite the fact that their region produces oil, they are still amongst the poorest of the poor in Nigeria. Now that kind of scenario can never be fought by any force. They will fight and fight, generation after generation. The only remedy is to make that community get all the benefits that come with the economic activities from drilling the oil from their ancestral land. In the absence of those kinds of benefits, there will always be yet another generation that takes up arms to fight the Government. This is because what happens in that kind of a scenario is that the people pit themselves against the Government and it is like two forces fighting over such a beautiful economic activity, like the drilling of oil or generation of electricity, in the case of Turkwel Gorge. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}