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"content": "years, they have not been given adequate resources. They have been given resources for drilling, but they need resources also to improve the infrastructure, including roads. They also need water because the project uses a lot of water. In the budget for the last financial year, they had a shortfall of Kshs2 billion. I am happy that it was captured under the revised estimates and also in the estimates of this year. So, this is an area which is very crucial for us. Geothermal is not only in Naivasha. You can get it in Baringo, Homa Bay or Turkana counties. Hence, instead of establishing factories and transporting all this power, why can we not create factories there which will lower the cost of transmission? This will lower the cost of electricity. I think that, that is what the Geothermal Development Corporation (GDC) is trying to do so, so that they can establish some of the industries, invite interested companies or private people so that, in Turkana, instead of connecting all the power and transporting all the way to Nairobi, you can establish a factory there. This will create job opportunities for the people living around there. Maybe, instead of taking about 100 megawatts there, they may consume about 20 megawatts and the balance of about 80 megawatts can be used by the rest of the country. Hence, that would be the only way of opening up our areas. You will find that the cost of transmission is very high; it also requires a lot of money. The people of Turkwel have been fighting in the Turkwel Project. The people living in Turkwel did not have electricity, and yet the question they were asking is this; we generate electricity here; who is using that power if we cannot be given the opportunity to benefit from it? That has caused animosity among the communities living there to an extent that they have now been given power. You need to give them an industry there so that they can get employment and then move on. Another point which I want to touch on, Mr. Speaker, Sir, is this; geothermal power is one part, the other part is the coal plant, and I am happy because I think they are establishing it in Kitui. I saw a tender of about 960 megawatts of a power plant. If that is established in Kitui, we can also have factories –even cement factories – going there. There are raw materials which people go and manufacture or which they go and get from Kitui, transporting it all the way to Nairobi or to the Athi River cement factories here to be used. But with the 960 megawatts power station being established there, factories can also be put up there and in the process create job opportunities and, hence, ease out the population from Nairobi; and also establish other cities around there. That is also an area we can explore, although people have been saying that coal is not good energy. You will find coal in China, India and in Japan, where the biggest about 50 per cent of their power plants are powered by coal. But when it comes to our area, we are told, no; go to the green energy,” which is very expensive! It is not good. But I think as a country, it is good to open up those areas. If they are using coal in Japan, China and in other places like South Africa, with our coal in Kitui, we will still lower the cost of electricity by establishing those power plants. Mr. Speaker, Sir, another area which is of great importance is gas, which is very cheap. Tanzania now has got a lot of gas deposits, which is going to lower the cost of electricity. They are looking for a way of even exporting their excess to our country. But I want to believe that in the course of even drilling oil and in the course of our 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."
}