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"content": "continue to manipulate us until we completely exhaust all our minerals. They give us an account whereby President Charles Taylor who is now languishing in prison in the United Kingdom (UK) and is going to stay there for 50 years - we want to wish him a long life so that he completes the 50 years - which is almost difficult because I hear he is over 60 years. When he was sentenced, he said that he was told by the United States of America (USA) that he will take 5 per cent. Charles Taylor refused to take the 5 per cent and demanded 35 per cent. At that time, the cases at The Hague had started. Those are not my words. When he refused, an American came and told him that we can help you end these investigations at The Hague if you allow 5 per cent. Taylor then said that he would rather pay rather than allow another generation to come and get 35 per cent. In the process, you know where Taylor is. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is something called the bottom one billion people in the world, and 75 per cent of these bottom one billion people who live in abject poverty come from Africa. The author was called Colier, an expert of the World Bank. When I was reading it around three months ago, I realized that if we do not address what Colier raised in that book, the oil that we have discovered in Turkana will do to Kenya what oil is now doing to the former Sudan and the current South Sudan. He said that there is a curse in Africa that is the reason why 75 per cent of the one billion bottom poorest people in the world come from our continent. The first curse is the mineral resource curse. The moment an African country gets minerals the way we have in Turkana, it becomes a recipe for civil war. People will start fighting, even inter-tribally, and in the process, you will end up where the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is. The DRC, the richest country in Africa has for over 50 years been unable to exploit its potential because they are fighting over that resource. So, the mineral resource of DRC has become a curse. I am saying that we, the leaders of this Republic, must refuse to allow the oil that has been found in Turkana to become the curse that will give us a second curse of civil war. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other curse in Africa is the issue of bad governance. You will find that because of the oil, the geothermal in Olkaria, Silale and Menengai, poor governors of the Republic will not give us an opportunity to prosper. Why? Because leaders will open an offshore account and start banking all the money outside the country, thus, the money will not trickle to the poor of Kenya. This is the case of a rich continent with the world’s poorest. Does it not occur to you that something is wrong somewhere when, currently, the county which is supposed to be the richest in Kenya, namely Turkana, is the one which has given us the worst situation; that people rely on relief food, people are dying in this age and era when there are devolved funds going to Turkana? The answer is only one; corruption, mismanagement and poor governance. It is time the chief executive of the county took a special interest to ensure that the devolved funds are actively utilized in Turkana so that the children of Turkana do not die because of lack of food. I do not know where some of you have come from but if we share a common background, that thing called hunger pangs is not a joke. Those are just pangs, how about having them until you die? Prof. Lesan, you know how we used to come from primary school and when you reach home, mama is not there and there is no food, maybe for you, you could find food 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."
}