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{
    "id": 822640,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/822640/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 191,
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    "content": "generate a profit at the end of the year, then they will be out of job. It will be my proposal later on because I have seen many authorities such as the Energy and Petroleum Authority that are being proposed within. Time has come where we must become radical in our thinking and wonder about this obsession that the Government has with running and maintaining certain sectors when, clearly, you can see that they do not have the expertise. Let us open up and let Kenyans own their country. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. KenGen is holding on Kenyans who have bought shares in that company. So, I do not understand why when you are forming these authorities, we want to consider and say that Government--- When you see the representation that is being given there, I would have even expected they say that, for example, in the Energy and Petroleum Authority, the representatives that should include the Principal Secretary, a representative from Geothermal Development Company (GDC), et cetera . Where are the representatives, for example, of consumers? Where are the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM)? These are large consumers of energy and they are the people who can sit in that board and tell the representatives from the Government whether they are doing a good or poor job. However, when you sit only as Government officials, there is very little that you can do. You cannot critic yourself. Therefore, it calls upon us, sometimes when such legislations are brought before us, to look through the rear-view mirror and see the journey that our country has travelled. We should then again focus forward and say; “do we want to stick to this particular path where the Government regulatory authorities do not have representatives from the private sector, especially in an organisation or a facet of the economy as useful as energy?” Madam Temporary Speaker, we are speaking about the Big Four Agenda and we said that we want to move our manufacturing. You cannot move manufacturing unless you address the issue of the cost of power in this country. This is something that I have not heard over this Bill. I assume it is addressed, but not as sufficient as I would have expected. Where are the answers that Kenyans have been demanding, for example, in the last few days and said; “what shall we do?” Where is the stress that the Government is giving itself and saying; “in the next 10 to 20 years, for example, we want to transit from these fossil fuels as ways of producing electricity to renewable source that are cheaper and also where the world is moving to.” If we keep on insisting that we still want to stick to diesel generators that are supplying our energy, then imagining that we shall grow our manufacturing sector will remain to be pipe dreams. In Clause 95 about the Energy and Petroleum Tribunal, it is my sincere hope that Kenyans who will get the chance to serve in this particular tribunal shall be patriotic enough and not serve like those that have had the chance to serve in the previous tribunals. They would just sit down and a have a view of the country based on what is in it for them. They should be patriotic to know the kind of impact that the people that they give the licenses to operate and those that appear before them have in the country. 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."
}