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"speaker_name": "Sen. Billow",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I want to thank the Committee for this report, which highlights their visit to Olkaria. I also want to thank them for bringing the focus on geothermal power development. Mr. Speaker, Sir, if we look at the Government’s development blueprint, Vision 2030, the most important challenge that faces this country’s development; that has particularly hindered the industrial take off; that has also affected the regional or global competitiveness of this country, is the high cost of energy. This is a matter that has been raised for many years, and the successive Governments have repeated it; that their main commitment would be reducing the cost of power so that our industries can have cheaper power and, therefore, reduce their cost of production, which will in turn enhance their competitiveness. Mr. Speaker, Sir, it is also the pledge of this Government – now different than the others – that they are committed to reducing the cost of power so that the competitiveness of the country will be enhanced. However, it is one of the major challenges. For me, the single most important challenge that I have seen is the lack of coherence on Government policy in the energy sector. Even as we look at this report, you can find clearly that there is no coherence. The Government very clearly in this report--- What comes out is that there is an urgent need to develop our power capacity to accrue at least 5,000 megawatts in the next couple of years, but by 2030, at least we should have 15, 000 megawatts. The challenge we have here is not the lack of resources to generate. We have the geothermal power resource available, but it is the lack of policy; that we are not focusing our financial resources or our energies into it. Even as we look into this, with all this potential for geothermal, you find the Government engaging in other very expensive dreams, for example, nuclear power energy. Why would you want to go for nuclear power energy when you have the potential for geothermal to generate even up to three times this 5, 000 megawatts that is being projected? The second thing is the cost of power. Currently this country’s power is one of the most expensive in the region. The reason is because of the mix of the power sources that we have; the thermal power, the hydro electric power and of course, the emergency power sources that we have which provide at least 60 per cent of the power sources. That is what makes it very expensive because power like from the generators can cost up to Kshs35 per kilowatt. This geothermal is the single cheapest source of power. In this Report, we are told it is about Kshs8 per kilowatt. If that is the case then, there is need to focus a lot of our resources in this particular area. What this Committee is telling us is that for the Government to generate the 5, 000 megawatts, they will require US Dollars 20 billion. This is Kshs17 trillion. But with the 5, 000 megawatts of power, this country will not have any more power shortages. It will no longer be using generators. It will no longer have expensive power. It will be the destiny of investors. The reason why many investors are leaving 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"
}