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{
    "id": 513304,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/513304/?format=api",
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    "content": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr. also mentioned the importance of earned currency, especially the Authority and the financial report that is going to be given at the end of the financial year to the Senate. The proposal in the Bill is that this Report is given to the President and the Senate. However, we can also look at Clause 36 as he recommended and also anchor the Senate in both Clauses 36 and 37 to strengthen the role of the Senate. He also mentioned the importance of insulating the Authority and this is a concern that was raised by various Senators because we do not want to have an Authority that will run amok, become corrupt and trickle this corruption back to the counties. We want an Authority that will follow the laws. The Authority that has been put in place is bottom heavy; five members from the community including the Chair who will be nominated by the President, Principal Secretaries (PSs) in the mining, Finance and Treasury. However, I think it is very important because especially in this Bill, the Authority has a lot of responsibility in ensuring that they are able to do the various agreements and execute them well and coordinating the processes from the Authority to the county committees and the community forums. So, they have a very key role to play. With devolution and sometimes with the lack of transparency that we have seen in terms of people accounting for funds, I think this is where the concern was coming from. We need then to think about ways to ensure that when that report comes to the Senate, we have a chance to scrutinize it properly and ensure any loopholes are immediately covered. Sen. Murungi talked about the need and the differentiation between CSR and royalties which is very key. I remember when we visited some of the counties, this issue came up and some investors were very quick to say that they were already giving back in terms of corporate social responsibility. We are very keen to suggest and to make it very clear that corporate social responsibility is fine. In fact, even with the benefit sharing agreement in place, it is still okay to engage in corporate social responsibility. However, corporate social responsibility does not bind both the investor and the community and so it is very important that we have a benefit sharing mechanism that will enable us to do exactly that. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, even in the Bill, apart from the monetary aspects, we also have non-monetary aspects. As this particular Authority goes about its work, it should put together ideas about how the community can actually gain either through educational programmes or value addition to the natural resources so that, for example, they are not transported in their raw form. That would create employment that some of the Senators spoke about. Benefit sharing is not about tokenism; it is actually about giving back to the community. The whole idea of ensuring that this happens is key. Clauses 5 and 6 are important because they set the Benefit Sharing Authority which is a key organ which will be in charge of most of the processes. Many Senators also looked at Clause 3 of the Bill and suggested that we need a more expanded definition of the natural resources. Even from the stakeholder participation, hon. Senators talked about Article 260 of the Constitution that also has an elongated list of the natural resources. Even though in Clause 3(2), we have actually incorporated other natural resources, the feeling is that we incorporate all the natural resources that are known so that if others are discovered, then the meaning of 3(2) is actually based on the new ones rather than the ones that are already in place. 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."
}