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{
    "id": 424122,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/424122/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 186,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, those services being offered by the geothermal companies are services required by the international companies which have been recruited to come and drill for geothermal. How many of those services are going to the locals? Are you promoting the local businessmen in the process of exploiting geothermal resources in this country? How many Kenyan lawyers are benefitting from the legal contracts that we are signing between the Japanese and other organizations in the country? How many insurance companies are insuring machinery worth billions which come into this country? You will find that multinational insurance companies follow these companies to come and insure them in Kenya. These are services that we can offer. I think this being an indigenous resource, it should also be used for the benefit of the Kenyan poor. I think it is time for us as Senate to put in place a framework of how the counties and the people will benefit from the natural resources found in the counties. We should require the companies operating there to advertise for jobs so that Kenyans are aware and can apply. We can also create situations for us to educate our people to say: “Look, we need roads, where geothermal drilling tractors will pass through.” We need local contractors from those areas to make the roads so that they are also beneficiaries of the funds that we will spend on geothermal. There will be doctors required and all manner of services to cater for the geothermal industry in this country. I would like to see – which is not there in our policies and law – a huge comprehensive and local content policy on geothermal and other energy resources. Having said that, we are not blind to the fact that there are many other sources of energy. Solar panels have become cheaper and this is a very abundant resource. The Government has supported geothermal and there is no reason that it will not support solar generation in this country. Solar generation is available in Kenya. We can extend solar power to almost all the corners of this country if we invest even half of the amount of the money that we have invested in geothermal to solar. Secondly, coal is not only available in Kitui. There is coal in very many other areas of this country. There is coal, for instance, in Suguta Valley in Turkana. We need a comprehensive survey of the coal resources. We need a coal map of this country. We hear that there is very high quality coal in Kwale and yet nobody is talking about it. Instead of fighting for these two blocks of coal in Kitui, as a Senate, we should encourage the Government to do more resource surveys in those projects. I was in England two months ago and I looked at the energy mix. You will be surprised that 45 per cent of the base rods in the United Kingdom come from coal. The talk that coal is dirty and environmentally unfriendly is not viable. There is a lot of technology to produce clean coal like carbon capture and carbon concentration. We need to be asking the West which is also using coal to bring those technologies to our country and to train our people so that they train our people. Instead of shying away from coping with the environment, we should expand our coal resources. Coal is just like geothermal. We will not be importing anything. It is indigenous and available, unlike wind which only blows at night. Coal is there throughout. Unlike solar which is only available during the day, geothermal and coal are there 24 hours a day and seven days a week. These are the resources that we, as a Senate, should be promoting to ensure energy independence, energy security and affordability of power and electricity in this country. 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."
}