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{
    "id": 513608,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/513608/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 258,
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    "content": "you look at Congo in Africa, despite the massive gold and diamond deposits, we still have the poorest people in this continent. Time has come for us, not to merely condemn multinationals and foreign governments, but to work decisively in the interest of our people. I do not think we can wish away the economic giants of the world like China and say that they are coming to colonize Africa, bringing Chinese Imperialism and what have you. We cannot wish away those economies because they are impacting every country in the world. What we need to do is to find our own space and negotiate so that we get proper benefits for our people even as we accommodate those external interests in our country. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have had experience with multinationals, especially in the oil sector and even in the coal mining in Kituyi. When they talk about benefits to the community, they talk about what they call Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR). They tell you that they have built a primary school, dug a borehole, supported women or youth groups, et cetera . These are not the kind of benefits we are talking about because that tokenism will never transform the lives of Africans. We are talking about more meaningful sharing of our natural resources and that is what this Bill is all about. We, as the Committee on Energy, recently travelled to Brazil to look at their local content policies. What is happening there is very impressive because they are pulling all communities from poverty through local content policies. What is happening is that before you reach the minerals under the ground, there is a lot of activity to be carried out, for example, infrastructure, food to be supplied, housing to be done and a host of other services which have nothing to do with the natural resource itself. What we are asking for is also a share of those services as well. There is no reason we should get foreign doctors coming to Turkana when we have our own local doctors. There is no reason we should have foreign lawyers coming to negotiate agreements here when we have local lawyers in this country. There is no reason Tullow Oil Company, for instance, should be listing their shares in the London Stock Exchange and not in the Nairobi Stock Exchange. I am sure if they do so, more Africans will buy shares, even if the price is Kshs200,000 or Kshs100,000, so that when oil is struck, even that average Kenyan can also benefit from it. There is no reason they should use multinational insurance companies when we have insurance companies in Kenya which can insure those insurable risks. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in addition to sharing the mineral resource itself, we should also develop ways of sharing the services which are necessary for us to extract that resource. The genius in this Bill is in creation of this NRBSA in Clauses 5 and 6. When you look at the functions, they include; coordinating preparation of benefit sharing between local communities and affected organizations to review and, where appropriate, determine the royalties payable by affected organizations engaged in natural resource exploitation; to identify counties that require to enter into benefit sharing agreements for commercial administration; oversee administration of the funds set aside for community projects; monitor implementation of benefit sharing agreements, et cetera. 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."
}