Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 472975,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/472975/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 357,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kang’ata",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1826,
        "legal_name": "Irungu Kang'ata",
        "slug": "irungu-kangata"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I have looked at this Bill and it is a good Bill. But it has shortcoming because it concentrates powers in the office of the CS. If this Bill is not amended, the Cabinet Secretary in charge of mining will be so busy that any other duty that the CS is assigned by the President will now be relegated or that CS will stop functioning. Why do I say so? Look at the arrangement of clauses of the Mining Bill, 2014. You will see that the proposed Section 12 of this Bill provides that:- “The Cabinet Secretary shall be responsible for the general administration of this Act.” It means that the CS is in charge of operationalization of this Act. So many facets relating to mining will now be vested in the CS. Those facets include, for instance, the CS declaring an area reserved for small operations. The CS will be in charge of areas reserved for tendering. The Cabinet Secretary will have the power to restrict or exclude areas from operations as proposed in Section 15 of this Act. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, look at the proposed Section 78 of this Bill; it gives powers to the Cabinet Secretary to give licenses. If you are interested in exploring minerals, you will now be applying to the Cabinet Secretary. Let me not enumerate, but a lot of power has been vested in the office of the Cabinet Secretary. In a nutshell, the bottom line is that this Bill has concentrated a lot of powers to the Cabinet Secretary. The remedy is very simple. I am one of those people who are very conservative when it comes to issues of money. I rarely propose the formation of boards because I am of the view that boards tend to increase expenses of the Government. They tend to create many layers of procedures and bureaucracy. Be that as it may, this is the only exception so far that I am going to clamour for the establishment of the Minerals Board, so that we can, therefore, transfer all those powers which have been vested upon the Cabinet Secretary---"
}