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"content": "This is a very radical approach and it is going to bring a radical transformation of this society. God blesses people in various ways because you find that the natural resources are found in areas which are traditionally considered marginal. For example, there is oil in Turkana, manganese in Kwale, coal in Kitui, et cetera. God is trying to balance resources. It is not for us to deprive those people of the benefits which God has bestowed on them. This NRBSA will bring equity into our society and that is why we are supporting it. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, my only little concern is the various approaches; we seem to have to these efforts which are not properly coordinated. I know that last weekend the Committee on Energy held a workshop in Mombasa because they are developing what they are calling “The Kenyan Local Content Bill”, along the lines of the Nigerian Local Content Bill which is supposed to deal with issues of benefit sharing or transfer of more resources in the sector to the local populations. I know there are certain aspects of that Bill which will have a bearing on this Bill. Maybe when we come to the Committee Stage, instead of us introducing new Bills, we could look at amendments to see how we can accommodate the ideas that are being generated from the Committee on Energy. We are not only talking about justice between regions, but we are also talking about justice between generations. I was one of the few Kenyans who visited Libya during the days of Muamar Gaddafi. We might accuse him of many things, including dictatorship, but when it came to benefit sharing for the natural resources, I think Libya was very advanced. From the oil revenue, they distributed their revenue to their villages and every village had its own chairman. Because the indigenous Libyans live in manyattas like the Maasais, their manyattas were built of stone; very modern housing. Any of their children who went to university, when they came back home after university, they were given keys to a two bedroomed apartment. So, their housing is looked after by the government. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, education and healthcare were free, courtesy of the oil resources in Libya. Muammar Gaddafi will go into history as one man who created a river, because he found an underground water reservoir somewhere in the Sahara Desert and did a 70 kilometer river across Libya. There was no river before. On the banks of that river, the agricultural activities are enormous. They were self sufficient in green vegetables, tomatoes, watermelons and many others. So, when we talk about our natural resources benefitting our people, we are talking about what transformation they can do. When we talk about railways in this country, lack of infrastructure and all the noise we are making about high school fees, we hope that there will be a fund so that instead of this money going into people’s pockets, it goes back directly to the community. So, we can support even university education using the fund created through these mineral resources. We can support development of infrastructure, improve our healthcare and education. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I rose to support this great idea and I want to thank Sen. (Dr.) Zani. I know how passionate she is. The people of Kwale will always remember her for this Bill because I know that it has been such a big issue there. By the way, coal is not only available in Kitui, but also in Kwale. If you look at the Karoo 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."
}