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{
    "id": 663222,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/663222/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 203,
    "type": "other",
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    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, to that extent alone, I feel that we have made progress. One of the things that must be said here is that the issue of energy is very important to this nation because it is the highest factor in terms of costs in industry and agriculture. If there is one sector that must be managed properly both at national and county government level, it is the energy sector. If the intention---, and I hope the Committee will scrutinize that energy in whatever sense, whether renewable, wind energy, hydro-electric power energy, nuclear energy or any other form of energy - is not to make energy cost cheaper, then we are not helping the common mwananchi. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in clause 171, you will find Rural Electrification and there is a fund. This morning we were discussing the Equalization Fund with the Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and one of the things that have led to marginalization in this country is electricity. That is why Article 204 of the Constitution identifies electricity as one of those things that theEqualization Fund attempts to equalize. The efforts that I see with the Jubilee Government in attempting to have all schools connected to electricity, we should be saying that every homestead should have a switch. Every homestead should have an electricity switch; just like the one I saw His Excellency the Presidentswitching on in a place I cannot remember, which to me appeared like an informal structure. That is what every Kenyan should have. The minimum standard is that every school must have electricity. However, since it is a challenge and a big problem, it has been revised that every school must have a connection or solar energy. I know that although solar energy is a substitute for electricity, the correct position is that what rural electrification programme is doing in our schools is that they are going to abandon those solar projects because it is very expensive to maintain them. It is very expensive for primary schools in the rural areas to maintain the solar power set up, for example in your county of Kajiado.This is because even the middle class would find it very difficult to maintain the panels, the batteries and so on. The intention of having rural electrification fund should be that every market or every health centre in this Republic to have electricity connection. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there is also what they are calling the tribunal. The tribunal is called Energy and Petroleum Tribunal which excites my mind for good reasons. If this tribunal was in existence in the previous laws or in the law that we are going to repeal, the people of Thange and Kibwezi where there was a petroleum spill, would have had a good avenue to file a suit in this tribunal for compensation for over 300,000 litres of petroleum oil that leaked into Thange in Kibwezi East Constituency. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we are all aware of the problems that are arising out of accidents arising out of problems with the energy sector, transformers and so on. These are captured here in full including the jurisdiction and innovation which I support it in its entirety Let me go Baringo County, Naivasha and other parts of Nakuru County. These places are famous for water geysers which are a tourist attraction site but we have not fully exploited it. It is a tourist attraction. Why we have not exploited these geysers for purposes of reticulation of energy or source of energy, is something that this country should not be proud of. The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate"
}