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    "id": 664657,
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    "content": "Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Clause 85 provides that 10 per cent of the generated amount shall be for the local community share and shall be payable to a trust fund managed by a board of trustees established by county governments in consultation with the local community. The challenge that we will experience going forward and which we must work towards defining is the question: What is the local community? Shall it be the village, sub location, location or a ward? How will we define the spectrum of what amounts to local community? Suppose that local community is within a border of one county and another, how will we be able to cover the other counties where oil is found, but the impact of exploration is affecting the next county? These are matters that we will have to sit down and debunk to provide a legal mechanism that will ensure that there is no conflict between counties on matters of boundary or communities that are affected. Sometimes, oil can be found in a community that inhabits two separate counties. We must provide for that legal framework. It is important for the local community themselves to provide a critical legal mechanism for the management of those issues. There must also be a follow-up law to define how that board will be defined, how it will look like and the corporate standards required in management of those resources. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, Part VIII of the Bill is also very critical because it deals with matters of environment, health and safety. You can have all these resources, but if by the end of the day, you do not have land, healthy people or hazards all over, that will lead to more costs being applied in treating people for diseases that are related to cancer, chest infections and others. There must be proper legal framework which will ensure protection of the environment. Part VIII further provides for a clear framework of dealing with matters of environmental protection and linking it to other legislations including the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) and the Occupational Health Safety Act of 2007 that will ensure that there is protection of the health of our people and the environment. Part IX of the Bill is important because it captures matters in relation to what I talked about earlier; access to land. There must be fair access to land without trampling on the rights of the local community. Part X deals with dispute resolutions that emphasize the need for alternative dispute resolution to avoid a situation where all resources that are accrued from oil production are wasted on legal battles. That is an important provision. Sen. Murungi talked about local content on Part VI which I find critical. It is important not to get foreigners to do everything so that we end up dependent on them forever. There must be transfer of technology, skills and knowledge. For every engineer that comes from outside the country, there must be two local engineers to understudy what they are doing. That will build the capacity of our country in such areas. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I agree that our universities must prepare themselves to have energy lawyers and social workers who will work in that area as well as environmental persons who will ensure that resources are protected and the environment is protected. We must also have accountants who will work on accountability in as far as how those resources are concerned as well as auditors who will audit the oil companies. The importance of having those resources in our country is that we have a population explosion in this nation. Therefore, we must be able to attract investments in areas like 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"
}