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{
    "id": 592992,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/592992/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 535,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Gathecha",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 652,
        "legal_name": "Annah Nyokabi Gathecha",
        "slug": "annah-nyokabi-gathecha"
    },
    "content": "In many countries around the world, oil, which is a natural resource and a source of wealth, has turned into a commodity that has brought tears, acrimony, chaos and anarchy due to lack of proper regulation and the lack of establishment of the requisite laws that would empower local communities, ensure that the country gains revenue and ensure that the beneficiaries of the natural resources are the owners of the country and not the investors who come in to gain in all aspects. In cities in the Middle East like Dubai and other nations, you can see the benefits of having oil. But when we take a look at some of the countries within Africa that have oil, all we hear about are mercenaries, who are hired to protect pipelines because local communities are blowing them up or siphoning off oil simply because they do not benefit. This framework will give us a guideline, or a starting point, within which we will begin to operate as a country and ensure that we maximise the benefits of having oil; we will ensure that we, as a country, benefit from it. I specifically want to address the issue of establishment of an upstream petroleum advisory committee. The issue of upstream and downstream operations in oil drilling and exploration prevents locals from investing in opportunities that can create a significant value chain that can be operated in. Currently, what is in existence is very punitive for Kenyans. When you look at the amount of funds that are required upfront in order to operate, you will see that one million dollars is required just to get space within the oil pipeline. It is truly out of reach for local investors. You are giving this money to an organisation to hold on to but you cannot utilise any of your capacity during that time. The frustration that local participants face in the upstream operations ensures that when offloading comes, they are harassed and asked to evacuate their oil within three to four days. This is next to impossible because it takes at least four to five days to just offload the product from the ship. When we address this in the Committee of the whole House, I hope that we will ensure that we have a refinery that is operational, so that we do not do what most of the international agreements would want us to do; this is to extract a product from the ground in raw form and export it to developed countries, so that it can be refined and then we re-import and utilise it. Given technology, I know it is a big expense in terms of the investment required, but since the fastest growing economies in the world are no longer found within North America or Europe but within Africa, it will make sense that we, as an economic region within the East Africa Community, ensure that we have a refinery where we are able to manufacture and process our products. We should also ensure that a bigger preference is given to local production and development of engineering facilities by ensuring that we strengthen the institutional capacity within this country; when we talk about technology transfer, which is a significant part in this Bill, we should take it and domicile it institutionally. By institutions, I mean the universities that we currently have. We know that if we are going to grow this country, and if the 11 million unemployed youth in this country are going to find jobs, it is important that we strengthen Part IV of this Bill on local content and training to ensure that, that is actually domiciled within the leading national universities, and so that when we get into agreements with these companies, they will come in and build a full department of petroleum within the institutions. This will actually ensure that we will have true technology transfer; research and development facilities will be developed in this country to ensure that we take advantage of our resources, and that they 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."
}