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{
    "id": 611525,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/611525/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 516,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. A.T. Anyanga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1321,
        "legal_name": "Andrew Toboso Anyanga",
        "slug": "andrew-toboso-anyanga"
    },
    "content": "nuclear when we know for sure that we have got very many other alternative ways which are much cleaner and greener that we can generate power from. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, historically we know countries that have had nuclear generated energy. Part of it has given them a lot of competitive advantage but we also know that some of these countries have also had to suffer some huge catastrophes as a result of relying on nuclear for their energy generation. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you remember in the year 2011 we had a major nuclear leakage in Fukushima in Japan which was almost a global catastrophe because of the kind of waste that was released into the Pacific Ocean. You remember sometimes back we also had a nuclear accident in Chernobyl in Russia and in 1985 there was a similar accident in Alabama in the United States of America (USA). The Czech Republic in the year 1977 had this kind of problem and even there was the Bhopal nuclear explosion in India whose effects are still being felt up to today. These are just reminders of the kind of dangers that nuclear generated energy can expose a country to. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, but that aside we are not saying that nuclear energy in itself has all the disadvantages. Indeed, countries that have embraced nuclear energy have been able to achieve certain kinds of advances because nuclear energy in itself has certain advantages. We know for sure that one of the ways that nuclear energy has been very useful particularly in countries where it is extensively used is in medical applications. We also know that in terms of carbon emissions and being clean, nuclear energy is a fairly low carbon technology because it does not emit greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide. Therefore, up to that level it is fairly a clean source of energy. However, for a country like Kenya, and I would like this House to really come to the realities where we are in terms of our development, on average it takes about 5 billion Euros to develop one nuclear plant even using the latest technology. That is almost half a trillion shillings per one plant and you are saying that a country as poor as Kenya should be able to commit those kind of resources to put up one nuclear plant That is almost half of our entire annual budget and yet in our backyard we have a lot of potential for other much greener sources of energy which have hardly been utilised and tapped. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you look at the geothermal potential in Kenya all the way from Lake Turkana up to down the Rift Valley, we have hardly scratched what lies beneath the faults of the Rift Valley. The geothermal potential in Kenya is about 30,000 megawatts and that is almost the kind of energy we require to properly propel Kenya to be a truly industrialised nation. This is because that is the kind of production of energy that South Africa has and that is right here beneath our own Rift Valley through a company called Geothermal Development Corporation (GDC). We are capable of doing that. This is clean, green and sustainable energy. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we know that today in Kenya there are two major sources of wind energy. We have the Lake Turkana area and the Marsabit area. These are areas that have attracted a lot of international investors to convert the wind energy into a source of income. Potentially we can generate about 3,000 megawatts from wind alone in Kenya using those two points. I have not mentioned the coastal area. I have not talked about Lamu, Kilifi and Mombasa. These are areas with high potential for wind production. 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."
}