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{
"id": 1522972,
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"speaker": null,
"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. Peter Kaluma) left the Chair]"
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"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. David Ochieng’) took the Chair]"
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"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522974/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "West Mugirango, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Stephen Mogaka",
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"content": "We also know that the gold miners in this country – whether in Kakamega County or Macalder town – are volunteers who, by inheritance or being proximate to the gold mines, have sacrificed and put their lives on the line to go into those underground tunnels to try and get gold. As much as I support this Bill, it requires serious amendments to include provisions for the people who put their life in danger and sink below the surface in the hunt for gold. If this Bill has to be passed by this House, amendments should be moved to create capacity building for these traditional miners. They need to be trained and equipped with guns that can identify the gold when they are down there, rather than going on a wild goose chase and bringing stones which, in their eyes, appear like gold. Sometimes, when they take the gold to the market they get conned. Even if what they have is gold, they are told it is not and are short-changed. Therefore, they do not get value for their risk and time. This Bill states that it seeks to establish a Gold Processing Corporation and provide for the application and licensing of those actors in the gold industry. This is a noble thing. You may recall that this country had scandals about gold. Many times, people are associated with stones which are described as gold. Whenever they get to the true gold market, they turn out to be either not gold or they are short-changed. This Bill will help Kenyans who trade in gold. They will be clear in their minds on how to operate and who will be the licensed dealers in gold. It will help them not to be short-changed and lose their efforts and investment in search for gold. It is the most valuable mineral that we have. As much as we are processing this Bill that deals with gold today, we have several other minerals in this Republic of Kenya that benefit us and even abroad which need regulation. I will make an initiative to promote Bills that deal with traditional minerals, including clay which The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
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"id": 1522975,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522975/?format=api",
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "West Mugirango, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Stephen Mogaka",
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"content": "is a major input for manufacturing bricks. There is also another one which we call rikoro in my mother tongue. It produces gravel which is used many times in most of our roads."
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"id": 1522976,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522976/?format=api",
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"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. David Ochieng’) left the chair]"
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"content": "[The Temporary Speaker (Hon. Peter Kaluma) took the chair]"
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "West Mugirango, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Stephen Mogaka",
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"content": "The owners or producers of these minerals like clay and gravel do not get value for their money. It is time that the 13th Parliament legislated to protect the owners of the clay that manufactures bricks and other valuable construction materials, and the owners of gravel that helps in the construction of most of our roads. We should make sure that the local communities benefit. I will emphasise on capacity building because we have certain areas designated as gold mines, and I do not know for what reason. We should capacitate our people to identify gold and various other minerals which may be lying unidentified and undiscovered in this Republic of Kenya. If they are exploited, they would expand our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This will help put this country on a competitive platform in the international market where gold is traded. It helps create our national reserves, particularly in the banking sector. We have other minerals that help manufacture cement and steel that need be mainstreamed. It is up to this legislature to come up with Bills such as the Gold Processing Bill that we are dealing with today. This will ensure that not only the owners or people who originate from that mineral deposit area get value for their money but also the Republic of Kenya. With those remarks and on behalf of the people of West Mugirango whom I am indebted, I support this Bill. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me the permission to speak."
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"id": 1522979,
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Peter Kaluma",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
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"legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
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"content": " The Chairperson, Departmental Committee on Education, Hon. Julius Melly."
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"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tinderet, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Melly",
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"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I stand to support this Bill. I thank Hon. Shinali who has seen it right that the gold processing sector be regulated, organised and further developed. This Bill is long overdue. I remember one time when the Government of Kenya did resources mapping known as the Natural Resource Information Mapping System in 2016, it found out that this country has huge deposits of several minerals, which have been enumerated by my colleagues, such as iron ore, coal, oil deposits, rare earth metals and all these other kinds of minerals. Hon. Temporary Speaker, this Bill seeks to address gold processing in this country, which has not been addressed for some time. The Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs and this House need to recognise that we have concentrated so much on agricultural production such as livestock, tea, coffee and other commodities, while neglecting our minerals. This Bill seeks to establish the Gold Processing Corporation. It also seeks to look at its functions, the functions of the board, the management and the legal and institutional framework for collecting, purifying and smelting gold. I come from a constituency where there is a lot of gold. However, the processing, licensing and management of the gold has been very sporadic. At times it is at the whims of the Inspector of Mines, or even the prospector can allocate himself a licence and start mining. In fact, even the declaration of how much gold one has harvested is at the whims of the processor. This Bill seeks to regulate the sector and will generate more foreign earnings for the country than any other sector. The legal framework we are developing will make the gold sector a real earner for our country. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1522981,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1522981/?format=api",
"text_counter": 425,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Tinderet, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Melly",
"speaker": null,
"content": "It also addresses the smelting, fabrication, homogenising, sampling, registration, monitoring and even transportation of gold products and related products. This country has been accused of being a hub for gold syndicates. This has happened because young Kenyans, Kenyans and even the leaders in this country do not know the kind of gold products, the quantity and quality of gold products, or even how to handle fraudsters. Clauses 5 to 23 of the Bill seek to establish the Gold Processing Corporation. It establishes the board and its functions. It also goes ahead to indicate the headquarters of the corporation and comes up with the Chief Executive of the corporation, who will be a Director- General. In that particular case, it will ensure that there is a board responsible for all the gold processing and gold products in this part of the world, set standards and even have expert staff. It is well known that most of the gold processing in this country, like in Tinderet, Migori and even in Ikolomani, where my colleague comes from, is very rudimentary. Locals go to the river basins with their rudimentary implements, with some even digging up very unsafe mines that often collapse killing a number of them. It is time we regulated this and set standards. Whom do we license to procure and process gold? It should be somebody who has enough money, good machinery and expertise to ensure that the safety and lives of the miners are taken care of. It is through this Bill that we also need to look into, and I think I will be proposing an amendment to this Bill, the insurance companies. If you go to Migori, like I have, gold mining is done on the roadsides. It creates huge gullies. When they are mining, there are a lot of chemicals used, like cyanide which is very dangerous for animals as well as for human beings. The environmental impact assessment needs to be done before companies are set-up. Some of the chemicals they use are very poisonous. Other issues that I want to bring to the attention of this is that from Clause 24 to 27, the Bill tries to provide for the financial provisions of the board and this one is very important because as much as we are setting up this board, and I want us to really look at it going forward in setting up other boards, it should be a board that is not coming out to seek for funds from the Exchequer every other time. It should be a board that uses its own levies, its own way of collecting revenue and should develop itself. We need to learn this from other big mining corporations like De Beers Group in South Africa, the big gold trading companies of the world, which do not depend on a national Exchequer. It is able to run by itself, pay salaries, run its affairs and fully operate without having the dependency on the national treasury to run its operations. I want also to say that from Clause 28 to 42, the Bill provides for the application of the licence, restriction in respect to processing, and consideration of applications. I just said in my introductory remarks that if you go to several areas of this country, you will find that foreigners have just walked in at times, colluded with some people in the provincial administration, set up illegal mining, and robbed this country of wealth. There are rare earth metals maybe in Garissa, some in Taita-Taveta and many parts of this country. This is the time to really make sure that any form of prospecting or licensing and any form of trying to establish a mineral processing plant, has to be very clear how you are establishing and running them plus how you are making sure that we have a benefit for our country. I also say that in the other issues on record keeping, and even declaring the results, in the Mining Act, most of the time declaration of the proceeds has been left to the processor. The processor can under-declare at the expense of the resources of this country. So, I want to say that I shall be proposing a number of amendments to this Bill. On those particular areas, I want us to say that this Bill is very important. It is going to assist us to run the gold processing activities. But in the same breadth, we need to develop other Bills that give establishment of functions or running of other minerals like oil. Thank you, Hon.Temporary Speaker. I support. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}
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