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{
    "id": 473309,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/473309/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 272,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. ole Kenta",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 420,
        "legal_name": "Richard Moitalel ole Kenta",
        "slug": "richard-moitalel-ole-kenta"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I would like to, first of all, laud my Chair for the good job that she has done of presenting to this House what we have done as a Committee. Kenya is actually enntering a new phase as far mineral exploration and exploitation is concerned. As the Chair said, the Act that is in place currently is an old colonial relic of 1940. What we are wishing Kenya is that discovery of oil and other minerals will not be a curse, but a blessing. We do not want another Niger Delta situation in Kenya. The only way we can succeed in that regard is to ensure that the communities on whose land minerals are discovered benefit. We have gone to the extent of taking care of that aspect in this Bill by ensuring that the national Government, as the owner of the minerals, will take the lion’s share of the resources, and that the county governments – especially the communities – will also get their share. This will make it easier for those extracting the minerals to operate areas with minerals. Another important thing is that communities should be involved in all aspects. I would like to mention the fact that some years ago, some of the areas were marginalized, but all of a sudden, because oil has been discovered, since Turkana County is part of Kenya, everybody runs there and takes land from the people. Before oil was discovered, the Turkana were non-entities. They were only known for suffering. There is fear that some communities will take everything. I would like to assure the House that, that is not the intention of our Committee. Our Committee wants to ensure that everybody benefits because we know what the central region and Nairobi County did to us. We are not going to forget; we are also saying that having been marginalised for all those years, it is time we caught up with the rest of Kenya. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we have also looked at the ordinary Kenyan minor, because the current Act actually criminalises possession of any mineral by any indigenous Kenyan. So, we want to ensure that there is what we call “external minors”, who will actually benefit from the local levels. This will ensure that communities also establish committees to ensure that this thing is streamlined to ensure that there will be no crooked middlemen to take resources from the people. When it comes to agreements, most of the big companies bring into the country billions of US dollars. The dangerous thing is that they do so without any binding agreements for the benefits of Kenya. What we intend to do is to ensure that Parliament, as the representative of the people, is involved in this, so that the Cabinet Secretary does The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}