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{
    "id": 385332,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/385332/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 81,
    "type": "other",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, West Pokot County has coal and limestone, enough to generate and produce cement for the whole of this region. There are people running there and talking about the resources without talking about the Pokots, because they are irrelevant. This is because somebody is sitting in Nairobi and handing over a licence to go and mine gold in Macalder or Kakamega or take limestone from Pokot, without caring whether or not there are people there. That is exactly what Sen. Boy Juma Boy was talking about. We have become so impersonal in our dealings with our own nationals that Kenyans are mere statistics when we are talking about distribution of resources. It is amazing how you go around the country and find that even in water-secure counties like yours and mine, women are still scrunching by the roadside for water. These are the resources that Sen. (Dr.) Zani is talking about. This Senate and Upper House will go a long way in the history of this country for being able to do what we have not done for the last 50 years; legislating for the ordinary person. We are not just legislating for the ordinary person, but actually arresting and nipping in the bud the situations that you see in the Nigerian Delta; where people see others fly in helicopters in obscene opulence and they are scrunching to eat grasshoppers, yet they have been the custodians of these resources. This is the situation that we are forestalling and nipping in the bud. This will immensely help this country. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you go to Loiyangalani, people fly in helicopters to assess the volume of wind – a natural resource – so that they can generate 400 megawatts of power and sell into the grid. If you ask them who lives at Loiyangalani, they will not even know. The Rendile, Turkana and El Molo who live at Loiyangalani are statistics and then, they come and say: “Corporate social responsibility: We built one classroom for a nursery school.” That is what they talk about. When they talk about corporate social responsibility, they gave the area councillor some money to buy piki pikis for use, which he never bought. It is in their records. We must move away from tokenism and have a true country where resources belong to the people of Kenya, and they feel, share into and benefit from these resources. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me leave room for other colleagues to benefit. I want to urge Sen. (Dr.) Zani that she should find time to find a colleague to amend this Motion, so that the production and tabling of the Bill is not the issue of Government, but this Senate. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I beg to support."
}