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{
    "id": 385322,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/385322/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 71,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Wetangula",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 210,
        "legal_name": "Moses Masika Wetangula",
        "slug": "moses-wetangula"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I will encourage Dr. Zani, towards the end, to get a colleague – I am not in the habit of amending Motions – to amend the Motion so that the legislation is not left to the Government because this Senate, in a bipartisan manner can draft the Bill, bring it to this House, pass it and give it effect. If we call upon the Government, you will find that their priorities are different and this will not come at the time we have designed. The essence of urgency will be different. Secondly, I will encourage the distinguished Senator that in drafting the Bill, she should seek expertise or advise from the Commission of Mines, the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and the Treasury on the taxation regimes and programmes and look at the best practices elsewhere. I say this because recently, the President of Zimbabwe attempted to strangle mining companies by insisting that 50 per cent of everything that they do must be given to the state. They then parked up and left. That is what Prof. Anyang’-Nyong’o was talking about when he mentioned the goose and the eggs. We should be conscious about that. That said and done, this is a wonderful Motion. Last year, I was travelling from Nairobi to Ghana and I sat next to a professor, an original medic, who has since studied and has about three PhDs on Mining, Petroleum and general resources. He is an adviser to about 15 governments. He told me – I believe him because he is doing a study on Kenya – that Saudi Arabia has oil reserves to the tune of 970 trillion dollars. He said that there was clear indication from satellite surveys that the mineral resources in Kenya are more than three times that. This is 970 trillion dollars and we are three times that. Saudi Arabia’s is oil while ours are minerals. I believe him and that is why you see a stampede towards Africa. Everywhere in Africa, there is something below where we are standing. If you go to the Indian Ocean, you will find massive minerals down there. There is natural gas and oil, among others. As we take drives along the Mt. Kenya region, look at simple things like water, for instance, the Ndakaini Dam; all the water cascades to Nairobi but the neighbours have nothing. Look at all the water from Kilimanjaro, the Maasai Community has to wait for elephants to dig up and break the pipes so that they can get some water. This is replicated everywhere. It is the same case with the Pokots with the famous Turkwell Gorge. All these people know is that there is a big dam somewhere when they are dying of thirst two kilometers away from the dam. This country, in the last five years, has made tremendous progress in finding and identifying our natural resources. Iron Ore in Taita Taveta is classified as 97 per cent pure more than you can find anywhere else. There is oil in Turkana and expected oil in the Lake Basin and natural gas in the Indian Ocean and rare earth metals that Sen. Juma Boy 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."
}