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{
    "id": 541845,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/541845/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 117,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Keynan",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 41,
        "legal_name": "Adan Wehliye Keynan",
        "slug": "adan-keynan"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Speaker. I take this opportunity to thank all the Members who have contributed and all the Members who have been around for the last three weeks when this Report has been on the Order Paper. This is a critical Report. State corporations, public investments or State institutions are critical creatures of this August House. Privatization per se is not a bad idea. But we must think on how we should privatize key strategic Government-run institutions. Unfortunately in this country, privatization has been dominated by cartels masquerading as investors. This is why the history of all the privatization attempts that we have made over the last two decades has not been successful. We have seen what has happened to the giant sugar company called Mumias, which was so good not only in East Africa, but in the whole of East, Horn of Africa, Central Africa and South of Sahara. Today, it is a shell as a result of privatization. The question is: “Did the privatization add any value to the taxpayers?” The answer is no. At one point in time, Kenya Railways Corporation was one of the best railways institutions in East Africa but, today, it is a shell. Did its privatisation add any value to the taxpayer? The answer is ‘no’. Look at what has happened to the Kenya Oil Refinery; the only oil refinery facility in the Republic of Kenya. As a result of privatisation, it is closed. Having discovered oil in various parts of the country, we have to go back to the drawing board and plan for the construction of a new oil refinery – something which would have been avoided if the privatisation of the Kenya Oil Refinery had been done in a prudent and transparent manner. Look at what is happening to the Kenya Airways, the Pride of Africa. Today the company is struggling to stay afloat. The once vibrant airliner we proudly used to refer to as ‘The Pride of Africa’ has been reduced to a struggling institution that has to survive at the mercy of the taxpayers. Very soon, we will bring a Report on the privatisation of Kenya Wines Agencies Limited (KWAL). It is a repeat of the same. The question is what has happened to the privatisation process in Kenya. The answer is that the privatisation process in Kenya has been completely taken over by cartels – foreign Kenya-based cartels masquerading as investors. The cartels identify strategic institution for privatisation. They then manipulate the process and eventually take it over. Once that happens, the taxpayer loses everything. Telkom Kenya Limited is an off-shoot of the defunct Kenya Posts and Telecommunication Corporation. All of us here, including the Speaker, at one time represented a constituency. Apart from the headquarters based in Nairobi, the Corporation used to have an office in almost every village across the country. One of the things that we completely fail to understand is how you privatise without undertaking a feasibility study. How do you privatise without a valuation report? How do you privatise such a huge institution without compiling an asset registry? All these were lacking. 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."
}