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{
    "id": 822542,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/822542/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 93,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Orengo",
    "speaker_title": "The Senate Minority Leader",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 129,
        "legal_name": "Aggrey James Orengo",
        "slug": "james-orengo"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Speaker, Sir, once again, I commend Sen. Khaniri for bringing out this very important Statement. However, there is something we are missing out in this Statement which should be looked into with some concern. It is not seeking, as it were, to address wholly the question of power or power generation or supply in the country. I agree with Sen. Sakaja when he talks about affordability. To contextualise what Sen. Khaniri is saying in terms of what is going on in the country at the moment is that, those who are receiving these electricity supplies are being loaded with costs which cannot be explained. In fact, what has been going on in the Kenya Power is a criminal enterprise and it should be called what it is. This criminal enterprise did not start yesterday. I want to persuade Members that we are dealing with a very big problem. In fact, there are five sectors in this country that one should look at if you want to watch what is going on in terms of how we are running our country. One of them is what is topical and what we have been talking about, which is maize and what is happening in that sector. We then have sugar. Year in, year out, we are always talking about illegal importation of sugar or removal of taxes or waivers given to particular companies to bring in sugar. Fertiliser is another thing that we have had to deal with perpetually over the years; and then there is this issue of energy. Land is another question that we are supposed to debate in another Motion, but I think that its time is going to come. In the power sector, I want to remind Sen. (Eng.) Maina that the Government of yesterday and the years before tried to make sure that we regularise the power sector. This is because initially, power generation, distribution, retail and supply was being done by one organisation and it was thought that breaking it up would stop the criminal enterprise that was going on within the power sector. We had all these parastatals which were formed to deal with the various sectors from generation, distribution, supply and retail and that has not helped. Therefore, at the end of the day, I think that we have to find out what is happening every time. Sen. (Dr.) Ali has talked about the issue of change from wooden poles to concrete. It is part of this system that something in the power sector is always seized upon to make quick money. In order to contextualise this matter, we are going to relook at what the complaint is, in so far as the members of the public are concerned. More importantly, in order to address this issue holistically, we need to have an over-supply so as to bring down the cost of power to the ordinary people and that is what other countries have done. Ethiopia is working towards that, Uganda has literally an over- supply and that is why we are buying power from them. If you go to France, they have an over-supply to the extent that power can be accessed cheaply by the ordinary people. One of the problems that we are having in Kenya is that there is deficiency in power generation and, subsequently, we cannot have sufficient supply of power. In order to contextualise what is happening at the moment, I think that the criminal enterprise that is going on in the sector should be addressed quickly because the rest is like Vision 2030, 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."
}