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{
    "id": 491298,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/491298/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 171,
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    "content": "legacy of sand harvesting; right from their grandfather, sons, grandsons and generations to come. We paid a visit to one family which has been harvesting and selling sand for a long time. The entire family lives in an equivalent of a sand pit. I imagined the contribution that those kinds of families have played in the development of cities like Nairobi where we have skyscrapers and five estates. Those resources are got from these people. It is heart wrenching to find that indeed, those who have contributed to that kind of growth live in squalor. This story is replicated all over the country. I want to disabuse the notion that there are particular sections of this country that are either hosts of natural resources and have benefited. The first important point to note, as of today, is that this country has been relying on a law – which addresses these matters – that was passed in 1963. Since that time, up to today, this country has relied on what was passed on by a post-colonial mentored Government to address current day matters. One of the proposals in the Bill is that what is paid out to hosts of these natural resources should be 25 per cent of three per cent. This means, for example, that if a natural resource generates Kshs10, the benefit that goes to the host of that resource is Kshs3 out of the Kshs10 and 25 per cent of the Kshs3 is what goes down. That mathematics is horrifying. You can imagine what is expected out of that community. That is why this Bill is timely. There is no section of this country that can claim, cry or allege that some people in an area have benefited while others have not. We also had an opportunity to visit Kiambu County which I represent. Kiambu County has hosted, nurtured and protected an important natural resource which is forest. Almost an eighth of Kiambu County is covered by forests which are nurtured and protected. In the forest of Kiambu we have, besides the role of nourishing this country and the capital with water, companies that have invested there. The Committee paid a visit to one of the companies in Kiambu which has been exploiting a natural resource in that forest. The company has a revenue base of more than Kshs500 million per annum. Upon investigations by our Committee, we realized that the amount that benefits the people of Kiambu is less than Kshs500,000 per annum for a whole community. A company with those kinds of benefits covering such a big area can only put up one classroom here or maintain and that is it. It is important to note that as we look at the bigger picture of what the natural resources are, we need to own the truth that the battle for natural resources is fierce. If what happened yesterday in Makueni is an example to go by, things are bad. It is important for this Bill, which has come up to put figures on pen and paper, to ensure that those who expect to benefit should benefit based on the law which will be passed by this House of Parliament. It is also important for us as a country that there are shared resources in this country. One of the biggest challenges we found as a Committee is to define the term community. The heart of the Bill was to ensure the benefits that accrue from these natural resources benefit the core counties and the core communities. The definition of the word “community” became an uphill task for this 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."
}