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"content": "resources. This is a good thing. However, many times, us, as legislators, do not have a holistic view of issues where the world is moving towards when we are considering laws that are brought before us. Madam Temporary Speaker, I will speak to a few issues that, I hope, we can consider. First, I commend the fact that renewable energy has been given more prominence in this Bill because this is where the world is moving to. For example, countries like Ireland, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the United Kingdom are challenging each other to make sure that by the year 2040, they become 100 per cent renewable energy. I do not think that there is anything that stops us, as a country, to do so. The fact that we are an African nation should not be used as an excuse for us not to join this race. Therefore, when I see the kind of protection that is given to, for example, the geothermal space given the knowledge resources that we have in that space, I am impressed. In the past, in the law that has been used, the Cabinet Secretary had freedom to issue licenses to people that have expertise in geothermal energy space. In this town, for example, you will meet people claiming that they are in the energy business yet all they are doing is hawking licenses that they have been given of five to ten years. They have not scratched the surface. They do not understand how the industry operates. They do not have the resources to explore so that we can feed cheap and affordable power to our national grid. Madam Temporary Speaker, clauses 73 to 90 of this Bill give the penalties that will be meted out on people, it gives the procedures to follow when you are denied the licence and the avenues you are supposed to take before a tribunal. If you are not satisfied you can go to the High Court. This is commendable. It is my sincere hope that we will put our act together on how we manage geothermal energy in this country. It is a fact that when the Geothermal Development Company (GDC) that is existent in the current regime was introduced, if you read through many of our budget cycles, it was one of the well-funded Government parastatals. However, in the last two or three years, after the scandals that we read about, they are only given funds for recurrent expenditure and nothing for development. This is because of how the resources that they were given prior to that period were used – or should I say – misused. Some of the questions that bothered me even when I kept on reading this Bill are why we cannot take the route, for example, that we used with Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited (KenGen) which is one of the best performing quasi parastatals. In KenGen, the Government is being properly represented and also some Kenyans, in their own private capacity, own shares in that particular company. That gives you the kind of vigilance that is not received in the other parastatals. It is not the work of the Government to do business. It is the work of Government to provide a good atmosphere for people to do business. Therefore, for KenGen, for example, to have succeeded, it is because private eyes are introduced besides the Government having a position at the Board. Therefore, for every particular transaction that the company enters into, they know that they have shareholders to protect. The leaders that are put in office to take care of the company do that on a daily basis. When they report to work, they know very well that if they do not 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."
}