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{
    "id": 822584,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/822584/?format=api",
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    "content": "are things that we must invest a lot of effort in, including your Committee’s Report on maize. It must be a report that gives solutions to the problems. My point is that in the past we used to make laws without policies or decisions without policy positions. When a national Government official makes any pronouncement on any issue, us Kenyans must know; whether it is the President, the Deputy President or a Cabinet Secretary, every day, they say something to the public. There must be a policy position that is known to the people of Kenya. In fact, the Constitution says that when the President or Government official makes pronouncements, particularly, the spokesperson of the Government that must be documented in Government policy. This is because it must be something that binds the people in leadership. The only way you can bind the people in leadership is to have policy positions on all issues. That is why there is something called manifesto. Manifestos are used for campaigns. They are pledges which are translated into national policies that can be implemented. Madam Temporary Speaker, this is an area that this country is not doing well in yet; the part of following through its policies and the path of conversing on the issues that have been agreed on by the people of Kenya. We have Vision 2030. Even as we have a conversation about the five-year Medium Term Plans (MTP) or Short Term Plans, we must not lose track of the position of the Vision 2030. All Government departments should be reminded that, as they speak about the short-term policies, say, the Big Four Agenda and other agendas, they must not lose track of our Vision 2030. In the same way, if you are discussing matters of energy, we must look at it and say; “this Cabinet Secretary is acting under whose directions and what is he or she implementing? He or she is implementing the Government policy.” It must be something that each one of us can read and say; “this is the Government policy on energy.” Therefore, this Bill says that the Cabinet Secretary shall – not may – in consultation with the relevant stakeholders, develop and publish the National Energy Policy which shall be reviewed every five years. The reason why five years is important is because it can coincide with another Government coming into office. It is important for us to have a policy on every issue that is related to energy. That policy is accompanied by a county energy plan. It is expected, under this law, that every county will have its own county energy plan. That plan should be collated and consolidated with the office of the Cabinet Secretary at the national level so that it forms an integrated energy plan at the national level. These energy plans will, in the first place, take into account the Energy Policy. So, you have a plan and the main policy itself. I participated in coming up with the Devolution Policy. The Devolution Policy was such an important document that we developed when I served in the taskforce on devolved government. Madam Temporary Speaker, you were a Member of Parliament (MP) in the Tenth Parliament when we were passing devolution related laws. Those six laws that we passed; the Intergovernmental Relations Act, the County Government Act, the Urban Areas and Cities Act, et cetera, have become so important in implementation of devolution in this country. How did we pluck those laws? We first developed a policy position on all those issues and up to now, the document we developed, that is, the report of the taskforce on 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."
}