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"id": 890610,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/890610/?format=api",
"text_counter": 412,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Sen. Mutula Kilonzo Jnr.",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": {
"id": 13156,
"legal_name": "Mutula Kilonzo Jnr",
"slug": "mutula-kilonzo-jnr"
},
"content": "Madam Temporary Speaker, one thing interests me here in this Bill. This is called the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF). I am going to propose to Sen. (Dr.) Zani and the team that is working on this; that this portion of the SWF, must be looked at in great detail. I will give an example: The three top countries in the world on SWF and as a result of oil deposits are Norway, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi. They are the three top sovereign wealth funds in the world. Out of US$7.4 trillion, these three countries have over US$5.4 trillion in terms of SWF. What do they do? They invest part of the oil proceeds into the SWF. It caters for many things. First, it caters for old people. In terms of an amendment, let us not leave it as it is, here, in Clause 8. Let us make it specific; that you are going to deal with the older people. Imagine Sen. (Dr.) Zani, the money that we are giving to the people – who are above70 years old – about Kshs2,000 - if we had a SWF out of Turkana, we would possibly give the people who are 70 years – because God has blessed them with that age, with Kshs10,000, or more per person, without even getting into the budget of the country. Secondly, they deal with the question of the decline in oil. At some point, two years ago, there was a decline in prizes of oil. So, if Kenya is thinking that we are going to make money from Turkana; there would be decline. So, the SWF takes care of that and also managing fiscal policy and prizes. I suggest that we have that amendment and clear policies. The good news is that we are now talking about people. Every time you wake up, you find the Chinese doing buildings. Every time I see a Chinese building or I see a Chinese in Kenya, I think about borrowing. I think about the debts that these Chinese, who are all over the place – every nook and cranny – that we owe them money. The SWF can reverse the situation. We can help the Jubilee Government because they have put us in a hole, to get out of it by ensuring that people born in this country do not incur debt. How much money is a Norwegian who is born in that country entitled to under the SWF? It is US$195,000 when you are born. When you are born in Kenya, you have possibly, Kshs20,000 debt to the Chinese Government. We can reverse the situation. All is not lost. Therefore, I will work with Sen. (Dr.) Zani to see whether in the proposal of the SWF, that she has well defined, the money that is put in, even if it is 20 per cent, we can save it to help this country in the future. Sunlight, water, wind and everything else is something that can benefit this country. It is such a tragedy when I listen to the Cabinet Secretary (CS) in charge of Energy, Petroleum and Mining, that we have paid Kshs5.2 billion in the Turkana Wind Power Project, yet we have not benefited. In a country like Germany, sometimes they switch off the wind mills. This is because they generate so much electricity that you cannot store it. So, they switch them off. Madam Temporary Speaker, now that we are complaining about the sun – it has come down with its brothers and sisters; it is extremely hot. If we were utilising the sunlight and power that comes out of natural sunlight, we would be helping this country. However, it is going to pass. There is will be floods because of these rains. In Tana River area, there is famine and earthquakes, yet three months ago, they were having floods. Both are going to waste. This is the sort of thing that we can use. The people of Taita Taveta are possibly the poorest in this country and yet there are people who I know, who billionaires out of"
}