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"id": 472986,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/472986/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Otichilo",
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"speaker": {
"id": 131,
"legal_name": "Wilber Ottichilo Khasilwa",
"slug": "wilber-ottichilo"
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"content": "believe everybody who cares about economic development of this country, should support this Bill, because it is going to transform this country. How is it going to transform this country? The likelihood of this country to become industrialized lies on this Bill. That is because the numbers of minerals that have already been discovered are indicating that this country, if we use those minerals well, will become industrialized. Secondly, this is the sector that is going to create many jobs. If this Bill is implemented very well, and a good and enabling environment is created so that the industry can thrive, I believe this is a sector that has a lot of prospects, particularly the small scale miners or artisanal miners. For many years, the local people have never had power or even legal mandate to mine and sell minerals. They have always been smugglers. They have always sold those things under-cover. This law is now giving opportunity to the local small scale miners to be able to mine legitimately and sell the merchandise to open market. So, this is going to create a lot of employment. Smuggling of minerals, particularly gold and diamond, has been rampant in this country. We have been having gold being brought from other countries and coming through this country, as a channel for export. This Bill now is creating an enabling environment where we shall be able to benefit from a legitimate business of mineral marketing from our neighbours. They will be able to bring gold or whatever mineral to our country through what is being proposed in this Bill as metal commodity exchange bureau, where they will be able to come and sell their commodity legitimately on the exchange bureau and this country is likely to make a lot of money. So, smuggling of minerals is going to me something of the past, if this Bill is passed. We have had a lot of mining in this country and, as I have said, lots of millions of shillings have been earned. But our Government has earned almost nothing. Most of this money has gone into peoples’ pockets. The locals where those minerals are have earned nothing. In fact, if you go to those areas, most of those people are very poor. If you go to West Pokot; if you go to Ikolomani, those people are extremely poor. It is the few middle men who have been dealing in this business that have made a fortune. So, this is going to change with this Bill. The other issue that I want to talk to is about compensation. This Bill sets an environment where, if a mineral is found on your land or property, there will be a clear system on how you will be compensated and later on, be able to relocate to another area. This is to me a very important component of this Bill. Concern has been raised about putting so much power into the hands of the Cabinet Secretary. I want to tell you that the Committee has looked at this and we have proposed an alternative where now, it would be an independent body that is going to regulate the industry. Finally, I want to say that the issue of geo-physical survey is so critical that if this country is going to benefit from that industry, we need as a House to budget more than Kshs2 billion so that we can carry out a geo-physical survey of our own country. I want to assure this House that I am a scientist and a specialist in those areas. This country has a lot of potential of very many minerals. With a geo-physical survey, we shall be able to see where all those minerals are and, in that way, it will be easier for us to exploit them. Without belabouring on this, I want to strongly support this Bill and we shall be bringing in more amendments as a Committee."
}