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{
"id": 629576,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/629576/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Katoo",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 199,
"legal_name": "Judah Katoo Ole-Metito",
"slug": "judah-ole-metito"
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"content": "referred to and relating to the energy and petroleum sector. This Bill has proposed the establishment of many bodies. Apart from the tribunal and the Energy Regulatory Authority, there is also a proposed Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation which will also be managed the same way the Energy Regulatory Authority will. This Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation will be managed by the board of directors and will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Rural Electrification Programme. Right now, the Government has embarked on a programme that aims to connect all public schools with electricity. Last week, I was with the Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Water, Hon. Eugene Wamalwa, in my constituency. He also proposed that there will be need to connect all schools with clean drinking water. If a school has clean drinking water as well as electricity, the environment will be conducive for learning. Therefore the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation will be in charge of overseeing the implementation of the Rural Electrification Programme and developing and updating the rural electrification master-plans. Right now, many of the social or public amenities in the rural areas such as health centres, schools and trading centres need to have an updated master-plan. You may connect electricity to some of those entities today and after three months, others have come up. Therefore, there is need to update the master-plans for continuity. We also need to provide technical and other capacity support to county governments. This Bill also proposes the Energy and Petroleum Institute. That is one of the bodies that this Bill is proposing to establish, and it will be managed by a chief officer who will be appointed by the board. The institute shall be responsible for, among other things, implementing the nuclear energy programme since we are now diversifying to green energy, promoting the development of nuclear electricity generation in Kenya, carrying out research and developing and disseminating activities in the energy and petroleum sector. That institute can complement what is done in our public universities. There are students who are studying physics and majoring in nuclear. With a lot of research, that can be injected to this institute. Alternatively, the institute can complement those who are doing that research and can promote and enhance the production of energy in this country. Part IV of the Bill provides for renewable energy. Clauses 72 and 74 of the Bill talk about promotion of renewable energy and in this case, we are talking about development and use of renewable energy technologies which include biomass, biodiesel, bio-ethanol, charcoal, fuel- wood, solar, wind, tidal waves, hydropower, biogas and municipal waste . This is to mention but a few of the sources of renewable energy. The Bill explains ways in which renewable energy can be enhanced and explored. On the same clause, there is the formulation of a national strategy for coordinating research in renewable energy. For example, if somebody is doing research on coal which I know is available in Mwingi, we have another one doing research on exploration of natural gas along the Lamu coastal line and somebody else is doing research on exploration of gas along Magadi area or Turkana. If we do not have a strategy that coordinates all these, then we will be doing them in an absurd way. There is need to have a national strategy to coordinate research on renewable energy. It is also important to provide a framework for efficient and sustainable production, distribution and marketing. This is quite interesting because there is promotion on the use of municipal waste for production of energy. There was one I saw in India which talked about enhancing the local capacity for the manufacture, installation, maintenance and operation of basic renewable technologies such as bio-digesters, solar systems and turbines. I visited several 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."
}