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{
    "id": 629627,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/629627/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 405,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Nakara",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2926,
        "legal_name": "John Lodepe Nakara",
        "slug": "john-lodepe-nakara"
    },
    "content": "can convert it to electricity and this will bring the cost of fuel down and many rural areas will be connected. Through the use of solar energy, schools will not incur expenses of paying huge bills at the end of the month. Some schools cannot afford to pay huge bills incurred through the use of generators. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, it is the Government’s obligation to make sure that the whole country is connected to energy. A Government that wants to development the country makes sure that resources like energy are supplied to all the areas. It has become routine for every Bill to establish an Authority. We have created many entities which have become a burden to this country and the taxpayers are shouldering this huge burden. We expect the Committee to reduce some of these entities. This Bill has established the Energy Regulatory Authority and the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation. All these commissions and entities need money to run, staff and offices to operate. In future, we should reduce these entities to lessen the burden on the taxpayer. With regard to the issue of licences, it is true that the Cabinet Secretary can give licences to those who want to operate petroleum companies. However, we need to protect small-scale businesses in rural areas. Sometimes the fee for obtaining a licence is very high such that poor people in the rural areas cannot afford it. Although licences are necessary, we need to consider the fact that some businesses are small and others are large. Some people have been in business for many years. Let us protect the small-scale business people, so that they can grow. We need to remove cartels between the Government and the small-scale business people who want to operate within the energy sector. Another issue that we need to consider is having directors who are not corrupt. Many people want to be appointed to the board of directors because they want a shortcut to get riches. When they become directors, they become suppliers and engage in business with the board. We want to discourage that issue. That is why you see many people rushing to be appointed as directors and yet we know that as a director, you are not paid a salary. You only get allowances. However, people rush for the appointments so that they can use the positions to accumulate wealth or do business within the parastatal. We have cases where boards of directors have conflict of interest. They become the suppliers and do business with that Authority. As a result, we end up failing as a nation because of those kinds of people. Tullow Oil has trained some people in petroleum courses out of this country, who are now back to the country. I know many students who are back in Turkana after attending petroleum courses in Britain and the United States of America sponsored by Tullow Oil. These young and women are now at home without jobs. Some of them are here in Nairobi running up and down looking for any job. We need to make sure that these people are given priority in such authorities or institutions. These are people who already hold Masters Degree in petroleum courses. We need to encourage people to study such courses, so that the country can become dependent on the locals’ initiative. I come from a county where there is oil exploration. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, 90 per cent of engineers are from outside the country. We pay them huge salaries which they take back to their countries. Our local engineers are not benefiting from their studies. We should protect our local engineers, so that they can earn good money like those expatriates."
}