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"id": 861073,
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"speaker_name": "Sen. Ochillo-Ayacko",
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"legal_name": "Ochilo George Mbogo Ayacko",
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"content": "Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I am merely encouraging him, because competition will give us good output. He is a nice gentleman and his niceness or his magnanimity to the local people is manifested in his involvement in this Bill. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have had an opportunity and also a rare privilege to be the Minister for Energy in this country. This Bill is about oil, gas and other hydrocarbons, which ordinarily fall within the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. How I wish that it covered all natural resources that we have in this country so that it is not just restricted to hydrocarbons. It should be expanded to other opportunities and resources that God has given unto to us, as a people, from any particular area or region in this country. Nevertheless, this is a wonderful Bill and a step in the right direction, towards identifying the need to benefit locals in extraction of resources that are naturally found in their areas of residence or in their areas of birth. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you look at this Bill keenly – and I believe that everybody has had occasion or will have an occasion to look at it keenly – it has a pre- supposition – and a correct one – that most of the owners of the extractive industries are people who are foreign to our nation. They are people who come from beyond our borders, they are well resourced and whose objective is to exploit as much as they can; get it out of the country, make their money and go to wherever they came from. Therefore, this Bill is premised upon that, which is correct. This is because if you look most of the corporations that are extracting minerals, oil or hydrocarbons, you will find that they are owned by foreigners who declare profit beyond our borders; and what they declare to have profited from are things that God naturally gave to us. Whenever they make or declare such profits, very few of our locals benefit from such declarations. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, this is a timely Bill. It is important to appreciate the fact that God is always kind to all countries. God has been kind to Kenya, because many people thought that Kenya did not have oil, gas or other forms of minerals. However, in the last decade, a discovery of sufficient quantities of oil and gas indicates that God has been generous to us, as He has been to other countries. It is, therefore, upon us as a people to have the legal framework through which we do not allow other people, coming from other countries, to lick as clean and leave us dry or broke. This is, therefore, a timely Bill that ensures that something substantive is left within our borders and among our people. As it has been correctly identified by the wonderful Sen. (Prof.) Ongeri, the most important local content is knowledge. Knowledge and technology is so important because without them, you will be a person who has been taught how to eat fish, but not how to catch it. It is, therefore, important to look after fish and catch it; and also pass the knowledge of how efficiently to do so rather than just being given an overwhelming appetite for eating it. It is, therefore, important for us to have a legal framework through which multi-national companies coming within our borders to participate in the extraction of minerals, oil, gas and other things, can transfer the skills they have. This The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}