Clerk, confirm whether we have quorum. Serjeant-at-Arms, ring the Quorum Bell for 10 minutes.

Clerk, call the first Order.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to ask Question No.008 on behalf of the distinguished Senator for Kirinyaga, hon. (Dr.) James Murango. (a) Could the Cabinet Secretary provide a status report on the issuance of title deeds to public schools, particularly in Kirinyaga County? (b) What measures have been put in place to expedite the issuance of title deeds to public schools in Kirinyaga County that are yet to receive them?

Madam Cabinet Secretary, you can answer that Question.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, and hon. Members of the Senate. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I do not know whether you said that it is my first or second time?

I said for record purposes, you have been here before. It is not the first time. I was on this seat when you were here.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I thank you for giving me this opportunity once again. I have three Questions and I will take the first one. We have given an answer to this Question to provide the status report on issuance of the title deeds to public schools, particularly in Kirinyaga County. I have given an answer and a list of schools to answer in detail. I will go through it, with your permission. I wish to respond as follows- A multi-agency working group consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development was put up. The Ministry of Education and National Lands Commission (NLC), among others, were gazetted in 2018, via Gazette Notice No.12311 to fast track the titling of public schools. The multi-agency working group spearheaded the audit of titling status for all public schools in Kenya in 2019. According to this group’s report, Kenya has over 31,000 public schools out of which, we have 5,226 public schools which have been issued with titles while 5,799 have reservations in the registers. The summary of the status report on the issuance of the title deeds for all public schools nationwide is as shown in the table 1. I do not know whether I need to go through the table 1. I do not know whether Members have a copy of my response, but I could get your directions.

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Madam Cabinet Secretary, usually the responses are uploaded in the system. The Clerk can confirm whether that has been done for this. Sen. Chute, you must know how to use the iPad before you. You do not need to go through this.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is the list of the titled schools per county No.1 to 47 on page two and three of my report. I have given the total numbers of what we have titled and where we are supposed to be at. We have 31,000 schools and only 5,226 public schools have titles. T That means that we have a long way to go. It should be noted that this list is not conclusive. This is what I was able to get and I am yet to verify the full details, but it will not be far from what page three is showing as the totals, with a reservation of 5,799. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Kirinyaga County has 335 public schools as at 2019. The audit report by the multi-agency group revealed that the county has 180 public primary schools and 155 public secondary schools. Seventy-eight schools have been titled and 157 are reservations for titling while 257 are yet to be titled. Table two and three show the primary and secondary schools issued with titles. When I say reservations or reserved for public use as public schools, it means that the NLC has already reserved them and a gazette notice issued thereafter. The primary schools titled are shown on page four and the list is there of the total number of schools in Kirinyaga and the constituencies are listed for public primary schools. For the secondary schools, it is on page five as shown there, all the way to page six. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the list of schools whose land had issues like pending court cases are shown on page six, paragraph two. Nguguini Secondary School in Kirinyaga has a pending case No.34 of 2016. There is Kiarugu Primary School and Rwangondu Primary School that have a boundaries dispute. These are things we can do within the ambit of my Ministry. I will undertake to look at that as well as the pending cases to see whether there can be a resolution. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I believe the hon. Senator who brought this question is aware of this and could be of great assistance in resolution of the case. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, allow me to proceed to Question No.2.

The second part of the Senator’s question, part (b).

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to respond as follows- The titling of public land has been going on over the years. However, the progress has been slow, uncoordinated and without guidelines. In addition, the process of identification, mapping, planning, documentation, allocation, registration of public land is a multi-sectoral action or activity.

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We will endeavour to do our work. A raft of measures has been taken to fast track the schools titling programme. Measures taken include public utilities programme that was put up and the team has been constituted with representative from the State Department of Lands and Physical Planning, NLC, National Treasury, Ministry of Education and Council of Governors (CoG). The National Treasury is the one that holds titles on behalf of the entire Government. So, the National Treasury is a key stakeholder there. Preparation of a procedure manual on titling of public utilities land has been done. The draft procedure manual has been prepared and is currently undergoing review by the stakeholders. I confirm that we will be finalising that exercise soon. A pilot programme was scheduled within the Financial Year 2023/2024. The counties selected for that pilot programme are Kirinyaga and Busia. A letter requesting for an update status report on all public learning institutions in the two counties has also been sent to the Ministry of Education. We want to put the report together and the status report to assist the public utilities programme team plan and execute the titling of all the remaining schools within the two counties as a pilot. Why is it necessary? We want to use the process that is proven and for consistency purposes. It helps the team on the ground to do that exercises. That is where we are with the titling. I agree it is slow and we need to expedite the process.

Thank you, hon. Cabinet Secretary. Sen. Mbugua, I do not know whether you have a supplementary question?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, with your indulgence, I donate my chance to the Senator for Nyeri to ask the supplementary questions.

You have no such power to do so. It is either you have the supplementary question or not and leave it at that. I can see the Senator for Nyeri whom you have donated time for has not even requested. Proceed, Sen. Wamatinga.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, thank you for giving me this chance. Let me start by thanking the hon. Cabinet Secretary for her punctuality and well explanation of the questions raised by the Senator for Kirinyaga. Nyeri and Kirinyaga being bordering counties, we share the same challenges. My question would be - primary schools have been titled - whereas the land was donated by the same community, the churches have been left behind. Could the Cabinet Secretary tell us why the churches which are adjacent to the schools, that are sponsors of the schools have not been issued with the titles while the schools have been issued? Could she further explain to us why the colonial villages, which are widespread, especially in Nyeri County, have not been issued with the titles despite the directive from the previous and current regime?

Hon. Senators, you are entitled to only one supplementary question related to the original question asked by the Senator. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, kindly respond to that.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I thank the Senator for

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Nyeri for that supplementary question. Although I do not know whether the colonial village is a supplementary question because it goes outside the parameter of the question raised by the Senator for Kirinyaga. In my view, churches are independent institutions. They do not fall under the national Government. Once land is allocated to you as a church, it is then the responsibility of the church to take up the processing of the title. You realise that it is quite a huge task and, therefore, a huge budget. We do not have a budget to do titles for churches. It is for the churches to take up. Where we need to facilitate them in our registries, we will do so in terms of documentation. On the colonial villages, I have asked for a report on my desk for all the colonial villages, especially in Nyandarua and Nyeri counties. I will be giving directions in terms of how to start the exercise of titling. There are more than 300 colonial villages in both counties. I can assure you I will work on those. I have taken it up already.

Proceed, Sen. Maanzo.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Now that we are talking of land which has not been alienated or its status not known; could the Minister, whom we have a long history with, and is an outstanding lawyer, update us on the status of the land against Konza City. There are titles of Aimima Kilungu Farm which have been pending for quite a while.

Hon. Senators, I gave guidelines that the supplementary questions should be in line with the original question. The Cabinet Secretary’s mind is on the titling of schools. If we ask other questions that might not get answers now, it is a big problem. Let us try as much as possible stick to the original question. Proceed, Hon. Cabinet Secretary.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. It is not possible for me to give Hon. Maanzo, the Senator for Makueni, an answer now on the question he has raised. However, we can liaise and give him an answer at either another sitting or preferably directly. He can contact me and we will give him the necessary response as an office.

That is okay, Sen. Maanzo. You can get the Cabinet Secretary any time. Proceed, Sen. Chute.

Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I take this opportunity to thank the Cabinet Secretary and her team, both the Permanent Secretary (PS) and the Cabinet Secretary for the passage of the Affordable Housing Bill, which I earlier said was a scam. I now withdraw that word to say it was a very well-done job.

We had 42 amendments. Congratulations to this House also.

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Let me go straight to page three. I would want the Cabinet Secretary to tell this House - No.25 is Marsabit County, out of 185 schools, only four schools have title deeds. Two others, you have indicated as reservations. Can the Cabinet Secretary tell us what reservation is and why out of 185 schools, only four have title deeds? Thank you very much.

Proceed, Hon. Cabinet Secretary.

Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. To answer the Senator, Marsabit is one of the counties that adjudication has not been completed. In fact, the titling of schools will be part of the adjudication process. That is when we will be able to respond or give you a complete answer regarding the schools in Marsabit. This particular time, we will be more careful, so that even as we do the adjudication, we complete the titling for the schools. Thank you.

Sen. Dullo, please proceed.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I thank the Cabinet Secretary for a comprehensive response to the queries raised. Now, I want to comment on Isiolo, where we have 146 schools and there is only one with a title. You have explained what reservation is. I want to know whether the processing of the titles is done by the schools or it is the Government directly that initiates the process? Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, if you can allow me a rider to that. What is the Government doing about encroachment on most of the Government schools by private individuals?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, Isiolo is undergoing community land titling. The majority of land in Isiolo will be under community land. It is one of the very difficult counties. The hon. Madam Senator is one of the leaders in that county. She would do us very well by bringing communities together. We are ready to do titling and we have funding for it. However, I can tell you there are many issues arising when we start doing community titling, including disagreement on names and boundaries. I assure her that we are working on community titling. As I had responded earlier to the hon. Senator for Marsabit, when we complete titling this time, we will also do the titling for the rest of the land. We will also complete the titling for the public schools. In terms of encroachment, may I take the opportunity, standing on this Floor of the Senate, with your permission, to say that any encroachment is illegal; it must be stopped both by the people occupying the land, the public and our law enforcement officers. Elected leaders have also a role to play. My office will not just be producing the title, but we normally go back with a surveyor to establish the beacons. Once they are established, including elaborate mapping and survey, then we are able to do titling. That is why you can see the process is a bit

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slow, but also we need more funding for this activity. The directive for titling of schools was given by the Head of State in 2019.

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Have your seat.

Hon. Senators, you know our Standing Orders have allocated 20 minutes per question. The Cabinet Secretary has three questions. We also have another Cabinet Secretary for Energy who is also appearing this morning. So, I want to give maybe two more supplementary questions.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Allow me to congratulate the Cabinet Secretary. It has been long since we last met Madam Cabinet Secretary. I am truly impressed with the professional manner in which you go around discharging your duty as a Cabinet Secretary. It is something the Government really needs. Having said this, I recall Madam Cabinet Secretary when I was a Member of Parliament (MP) of Ikolomani Constituency, and I believe this applies to other MPs in office today, I opened seven new secondary schools and 16 new primary schools for which I bought land and built. The challenge we have had is that some of the plots that we acquired require succession. Since it is private land becoming public land, the people who received the money from us are not willing to come to court so as to assist us in the normal transfer. Is there a directive that the Ministry can give to help such a school, so that they can be assisted in titling?

To the Hon. Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale, Kakamega Senator, I think that is not necessarily a dispute, but a succession process that has to go through the court. I think the best way is to possibly collect the necessary information, the schools' names that have those challenges in your county and then the owners of the land. If the cases are in court, we can have the details of the court cases by way of a letter and all necessary details pertaining to those school titling. I have a litigation counsel in my office. They will be able to liaise with the Attorney General (AG) and the Office of the Public Trustee. It will take a bit of time, but it is doable. Sometimes it just requires you to call the family that has either donated the land or that has sold the land and sit with them and then you find a solution. I am willing to take up that exercise if I am given the necessary information. We can liaise with you, hon. Senator.

Sen. Kathuri) Thank you. The last one by Senator Kavindu. Hon. Senators, let me give further guidance. Since the Cabinet Secretary has two more Questions. To make progress, we can go to the next. Then I will request the Cabinet Secretary even if the question can come on the titling of the public school, still, she will be able to handle that. So, to make progress, let us get the last one from Sen. Agnes.

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Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. First, I want to congratulate Madam Cabinet Secretary for the good work that she is doing. However, I have complaints about Machakos registrar's office for failure to issue title deeds. The process there is very slow. We only have that registrar in the Machakos sub-county. As far as Masinga, Yata and everywhere else in Machakos, citizens have to travel all the way to Machakos for their title deeds. Whenever they go there, they are told to go back the following day. They can go there and stay all day without being attended to. I went there during public participation on oversight. The complaint was that whenever they go to Machakos registrar's office, the register book is always missing. They are asked to pay Kshs10,000, but they are not issued with a receipt and asked to go for it later. They never see this money or get their title deeds. Madam Cabinet Secretary, can you kindly explain what is happening in the lands registrar office for issuing title deeds in Machakos? Are there plans to open land offices in those other sub-counties?

Madam Cabinet Secretary?

Thank you, hon. Senator for Machakos, Sen. Kavindu. First, my registrar in Machakos is Dorothy Lettin, and she has other four registrars. We have some sufficient numbers, considering the total numbers that I have. Secondly, we have noted the workload in Machakos County is huge. We have gazetted new registries; that is Mavoko and Kitimani. I will be having a minimum of a registrar for each, for a start. I hope to be able to post two registrars for the two registries. I think that would answer to some of the delays that have been occasioned. You talked of some integrity issues, maybe that is, for me, corruption. I will pick it up with the registrar in charge. There is no reason people should come three, or four times to look for their title deeds. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have already given instructions that they must work with the timelines, so that once you make your application, you allow time to register and then just come a second time to collect your title unless the records are not there. However, I know that these answers will be finally found through the digitization process that we have already taken up and we are hoping that we can complete the exercise nationally in the next two years.

Thank you, hon. Cabinet Secretary. Hon. Senators, let us now move on to Question No.018 by the Senator for Nairobi City County, Sen. Edwin Sifuna.

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Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would like the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development to answer the following three questions- (a) Who holds the title deed for the parcel of land on which the Tom Mboya Social Hall in Makadara Constituency in Nairobi City County stands, and could the Cabinet Secretary indicate the ownership history of the said parcel of land? (b)Could the Cabinet Secretary explain the circumstances under which the parcel of land came into the possession of a private developer who has already commenced construction work? (c) What measures has the Ministry put in place to reclaim public land that has been illegally acquired or encroached upon as well as generally forestall land grabbing?

Hon. Cabinet Secretary. Please, respond.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. The hon. Senator for Nairobi City County, Sen. Edwin Sifuna wants to know what the fate of Tom Mboya Social Hall is. I have given an answer in response, which is written. Tom Mboya Memorial Hall sits on Plot Block No.79/782, formerly the number that I have given there, LR No.209/11046. The plot was reserved for the Ministry of Public Works, that is my Ministry, for the development of a community hall on 26th June, 1957 through an order of the Governor then. The plot was leased to Kenya African National Union (KANU) party, for three years, from 1967 on condition that the party pays rent of Kshs1. The condition was that the land remains Government land and it is still owned by the public works, and then the party responsible for maintenance of the building is the KANU party during the terms of the lease for those three years. KANU thereafter applied for allocation of the plot in 1985. A letter of allotment was issued in favour of the party on 12th April, 1985 for a term of 99 years with the effect from March, 1985. The user of the plot was still social hall and offices; we have given an annex of that detail. Thereafter, KANU did not pay the statutory fees indicated in the allotment letter of 10th April, 2018. The offer has since lapsed and I have given a supporting annex No.3. A lease for Nairobi Block 79/782 measuring 0.403 hectares, that is about one acre of land at Peppercorn Ranch was prepared in favour of KANU and registered on 25th April, 2018. I have given details in support. On 22nd February, 2021, the parcel was then transferred to Gami Properties Limited. I have also given supporting documents for that and the parcel having been registered as a social hall should remain as such. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, that is the status of that parcel. It is public land. Standing on this Floor, I want to confirm that Gami Properties Limited got an irregular

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allocation and I will proceed to cancel that title deed. It is going to remain public property. I will leave a copy of the CR12 to show the individuals who own Gami Properties Limited. My office obviously misbehaved by allowing this, but that was done jointly with the NLC. We will work together using Section 79 of the Land Registration Act.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, I thought that you could just handle the three parts together.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have talked about enforcing strict penalties, digitization---

I think you have summarized everything together

Yes, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I had said that we are working on digitization and we will need the support of Parliament through the budget. We have already finished Nairobi City County and we are now doing Murang’a and Isiolo counties for digitization. All the scanning in Murang’a and Isiolo counties is almost done and will be going live in those two other counties soon. So, this progress will be expected.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was a bit worried when I was reading the written response from the Cabinet Secretary because it did not have the last bit there, which is the most critical bit for the people of Nairobi City County on the action to be taken. I am more than happy to hear from her that she will cancel the allocation because the offer to KANU had lapsed, so they had no title to transfer. They did not, in fact, deserve to be given that title and there was nothing to transfer to Gami properties. I am also happy that she has told the nation that she is going to provide the ownership details of Gami Properties Limited. The only thing I want her to confirm to me is the timeline for when we can expect the cancellation of that particular title deed, reversion back to the people of Nairobi City County of the property and the reconstruction of Tom Mboya Social Hall. As I speak today, construction on that property is still ongoing; they are building a mall. So, the timelines of those actions, if the Cabinet Secretary, who has already made my day, can just add the topping to the cake. I would be very happy for the people of Nairobi City County to hear when we can expect this action to be taken.

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Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, continue to protect us from hecklers in this House because we are discussing serious issues here about people whom we represent and people are heckling here.

Sen. Orwoba! Sen. Orwoba, must you always make noise in this House, honestly speaking?

No, no, it is not in order, honestly. I heard the Cabinet Secretary say that she is ready to give a document.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I think this is online; it is the CR12, to show the owners of Gami. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I came back to the country yesterday and I ordered that document and it is available. Those are the current Directors of Gami Properties Limited.

Yes, you can now respond to the supplementary question.

I think he wanted to know the timelines, under Section 79 of the Land Registration Act. The process that we undertake when we realise an irregularity or mistake has been committed by our registry is to issue a 60 days’ notice to the holders of that title deed. I will take up the process immediately. The notice is to call the holder of the title deed to return it, failure to which, we proceed to cancel it. In most cases, when they know it was an untoward activity they normally do not present themselves. This is because they are supposed to present the title deed and themselves for interrogations. Once they do not show up, we just proceed to cancel it. It should not take me more than 60 days to do so. I thank you.

Thank you. Let us get a few supplementary questions starting with Sen. Murgor.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I would like to know from the Cabinet Secretary about a piece of land, which was given by the West Pokot County Council to Kerio Valley Development Authority (KVDA) around 1983 or 1986. Today, it is a dam, which is generating power. To mark the area of the occupied land, they put beacons to mark the end to show where wananchi should develop or live. Maliciously, some Members of Parliament (MPs) are grouping against KVDA saying they sold the land to some unknown personalities. However, the accusation is so high on the ground. I was wondering if the Cabinet Secretary is aware and what is the go ahead for those accusing KVDA of selling the land, which today is a dam that generates power to Kenya at large.

Hon. Senators, I had guided before that we should direct the supplementary questions towards the original ones as much as

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practically possible. The Cabinet Secretary can attempt to answer, but some details might be a bit difficult to get.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the direction. It is true that I am unable to respond to that because it was not brought to my notice earlier. KVDA is a parastatal under the Ministry of East African Community, Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) and Regional Development. They should have the details of that particular problem. The hon. Senator can also write to the Cabinet Secretary for the East African Community, ASAL and Regional Development and myself with the details. We can then try to help and resolve the problem. I do not know whether the problem is that the dam is encroaching or not. Sometimes, dams exceed the designated area, therefore, a redesign is necessary. It might be a case where compensation is not complete, people are trying to use the dam to get the land, or use the land that has already been purchased around the dam. I will leave it to you, but you can write to the two Ministries for better responses. Overall, I was asked about recovery of other public land. We are in the process of discussing with the Office of the President. We intend to move the Cabinet for a resolution to allow the Prime Cabinet Secretary to request for all Ministries to forward public lands that are in danger, encroached or grabbed so that holistically, I can address all of them. This is because it is not possible for the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development to know which land has been encroached and grabbed. However, as a Ministry, I have a responsibility to assist the Government to protect, recover and document public land, which is existing, may have been taken away and recover as much as we can, including prosecution of people found to have stolen public land. Obviously, even the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development is not safe. This is because this particular parcel that Tom Mboya Social Hall is on, belongs to the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I confirm that Kitale Main Prison is sitting on an individual’s parcel of land. I am also proceeding to cancel those title deeds because the prison is sitting on over 3,000 parcels of grabbed land. It is not an easy matter. However, we have to do what is right. The support of Parliament, including these kinds of Questions, is helpful. I thank you.

Sen. Mandago, you were on the top of the queue. Kindly ask your questions although you have a problem with the Dispatch Box.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Maybe the Clerks-at-the- Table can assist me with my card. I do not know whether this is a Question or suggestion to the Cabinet Secretary. On digitization, what happens with controversial land or those that have disputes during the digitization process? I ask this because there is a land in question in Uasin Gishu County between the county government, the Department of Defence and the people of the county. However, during digitization, a title which was fraudulently acquired, was also

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digitized. My request to the hon. Cabinet Secretary is that during digitization, all land under dispute should not be digitized because it further gives legitimacy to the fraudulently acquired titles. Secondly, the Cabinet Secretary stated she is constrained in terms of budget for the titling of schools. It is my view that school receive capitation for operations. It only costs a maximum of Kshs20,000 to get a title deed. Schools should process their own titles. I thank you.

Proceed Cabinet Secretary.

Did I hear the Senator propose that we ask schools to process their own title deeds?

It was a suggestion.

That would require me to move back to the Cabinet and request them to resolve that. Schools are Government properties. The land is not necessarily in the school’s name, but it is reserved for those schools. However, the title deeds belong to the National Treasury and are registered in their name. It is important for us to assist and proceed to do that. That is the only way we can assure validity and integrity. It is not a bad thing that the Ministry is the one to finally do it. Since 1960, this has not been done. So, we will not leave it to the schools again. Some of the people living around the schools have grabbed some of the school land. In that process, we shall be able to return any grabbed land. On the digitization of parcels of land, which may have disputes, titles or records under interrogation and investigation, first, we capture the records that we have by scanning and putting them as part of the digitization. This does not mean we will be hindered from interrogating those documents. I think the Senator was referring to the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) land. We have cancelled all those titles and we no longer have any problem. However, where we have captured the wrong or disputed land, it might be in court, and we get other records to state otherwise other than what is in our digital system, we will move to put that as part of our record. It is possible within that. As we digitise, we are using the existing land laws. I do not think there will be any compromise or danger in our work.

Thank you. Sen. Osotsi, proceed.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I have two supplementary questions.

Sen. Osotsi, we will consider one supplementary question. Choose the heavy one.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I would like to know from the Cabinet Secretary what compensation plans they have for parcels of land that were compulsorily acquired by the Government before the onset of devolution. I am saying this because

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there is a sad case of an old man who died four years ago and is still lying in the morgue. He is from a place called Kegoye within Vihiga Municipality. When Vihiga was gazetted as a district by the then President Moi, some people were relocated to create space for the construction of the district headquarters. This old man was one of them. They were relocated to a place in Lugari Forest. When they went there, they found that the land had complications. They returned to their original land. They have stayed there for years, and the old man died there. When he died, they took the body to the morgue, but they could not bury it because the county government contested and said that the land was within the Vihiga Municipality. Up to date, the body of the old man is still lying in the morgue. I brought up this matter when I was in the National Assembly in 2021. The then Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Hon. Farida Karoney, committed to Parliament that the matter would be resolved in six months. It is now approaching two-and-a-half years, and nothing has been done. Is the Cabinet Secretary aware of this matter? What specific action will she take to address this matter, so that this family can bury their old man as soon as possible and stop incurring mortuary fees? Given that even though the county government has refused to give them permission to bury their dead, they are still occupying the land to date.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, proceeded to respond.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am not aware of that particular matter. I would request that the hon. Senator sends a copy of the question and the answer we gave if he had asked the question. However, since my Chief Land Registrar, Mr. Nyandoro, is here with me, I will ask him to take up and check the records. If there is something I can do, depending on the commitment the Cabinet Secretary made – she committed on behalf of the Ministry – I will take action. However, with the greatest respect, this is a matter that the county should have resolved and helped the family. On my part, I will see why the Cabinet Secretary had said she would be in a position to deal with the matter and revert to the hon. Senator, not necessarily on the Floor, but I can get back to him with the relevant answer.

I advise that Sen. Osotsi approach the Ministry anytime. Visit the Cabinet Secretary’s office and see how you can revive that issue. According to the answers the Cabinet Secretary is giving, she will sort the matter the way she sorted the Tom Mboya Community Hall. Sen. Osotsi, what is it again?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the matter was raised in the last Parliament where I served with the Cabinet Secretary, and the answers were provided by the then Cabinet Secretary. They need to check their files and they will get the answers. I will be obliged to provide the responses to the Cabinet Secretary.

Sen. Osotsi, if you want to help those people, do not refer the Cabinet Secretary to the files. Visit the Cabinet Secretary and she will assist you. If you refer to the files and she has directed you to see her in the office to sort out the matter, that is fair enough.

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Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am well guided. I will make an effort to see the Cabinet Secretary.

Okay. Sen. Orwoba, proceed.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for this opportunity. First, I congratulate the Cabinet Secretary for a job well done. We can see your Ministry's output. I am sure Sen. Sifuna was surprised you gave a straight answer on his issue. I have one question on the issue of shared functions. We have shared functions under housing and public works. At what point will the Ministry initiate a programme to release the assets regarding the devolved functions to the counties? There are devolved functions whose assets are still at the national level. Is there an intention to release those assets to counties, so that they have control over the devolved functions?

Heckler!

We are all equal Senators. Under Standing Order No.101, it is not proper for a Senator to impute improper motives. I am not a heckler. My contributions are valid. Sen. Sifuna should understand that we are all equal.

Sen. Orwoba, you are out of order. You have asked your question to the Cabinet Secretary. Do you want the Cabinet Secretary to comment on the issues you are accusing Sen. Sifuna of?

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have asked the question. However, I also wanted to pass the message on record. Thank you.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, proceed to respond.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the hon. Sen. Orwoba is asking about the shared functions and transfer of assets. The national Government is working holistically to see what assets should be transferred. Most of the assets belong to the national Government and have not been completely transferred, including the functions. Nonetheless, there is a team working on the transfer of both functions and assets. When the final list is done, it will find its way to Parliament. This is not a simple exercise, and it requires time. Thank you.

Let us get the last supplementary question from Sen. Faki. I can see three more Senators are still on the queue. I will give you an opportunity after Question No.017 is asked. Sen. Onyonka, let us make some progress. You will have an opportunity to ask your supplementary question.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. My question is with regard to historical land injustices in Mombasa. Last week and part of this week, the National Lands Commission (NLC) held hearings regarding historical land injustices in Mombasa. On Friday last week, they made decisions that created panic, fear and despondency among the residents of Mombasa, especially within the island, where many are not sure of their residences or the places where they have stayed in for almost 100 years. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, initially, during the colonial administration, we had a system of Liwalis who were registered by virtue of their positions as trustees on behalf of

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the residents. However, when the Liwalis had passed on, those properties were transferred or inherited through the succession system and now are no longer public property. They have now ended up in the hands of the relatives of the Liwalis. Therefore, this has caused many problems because they are charging a minimum of Kshs5 million for a plot measuring 50 by 80 or 50 by 100 within the central business district. Madam Cabinet Secretary, we wanted to know what the Government is doing to assure these residents of their residences and also to resolve this long-standing problem that has affected Mombasa Island and also parts of Kisauni, Changamwe and Likoni areas of Mombasa County.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, kindly, answer that.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the Senator of Mombasa has raised a very important Question, which I believe is not supplementary. It requires to be put in writing so that I am able to respond to him, especially noting that the activities that you have referred are being carried out by the National Land Commission (NLC). As you know, the NLC is also an independent body, but we work together. Sometimes they are able to consult and sometimes, I am also able to consult them. Therefore, with the permission of the Deputy Speaker, I would request that the question be forwarded formally either through the Senate or directly to the Cabinet Secretary. I will try to answer it because if I can answer, then I do not have to come and answer it on the Floor. Consequently, I will leave it to you, Senator, through the Deputy Speaker.

I think Sen. Faki, that is full guidance. I also felt it is a weighty matter that needs some good response.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I agree with the Cabinet Secretary that we need to put in a separate question. However, I have another supplementary question on affordable housing.

You will ask maybe during the next question because it is related to the question by Sen. Chute. Therefore, let us have Question No.017 by the Senator of Marsabit County.

Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I beg to ask the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public works, Housing and Urban Development the following Question- (a) Could the Cabinet Secretary indicate the respective value of each parcel of Government-owned land that has been designated for the Affordable Housing Project in

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Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Kisumu counties? Also indicate how many of the said parcels are currently being or have been developed since 2017. (b) What is the value of parcels of land assigned to respective developers for the construction of affordable housing? Could the Cabinet Secretary indicate the projected cost, per square meter, of each housing unit as well as the interest rate to be charged to buyers of the units? (c) How many of the houses under the project are under Public-Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement? Could the Cabinet Secretary state the respective percentage contribution of the government vis-a-vis the developers? (d) Could the Cabinet Secretary halt all transactions involving public land until a mutually beneficial formula to both the Government and developers is agreed on?

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, respond to the four parts.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, allow me to take this opportunity to thank the entire Senate for supporting the Affordable Housing Levy Bill that came through the Senate. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, after an elaborate discussion, we have now a law that was assented to on 19th March, by His Excellency the President. Thank you for your participation and approval. I appreciate that the hon. Senator of Marsabit is on board because he has vented an apology. We should be able to work together. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I want to go to the four parts as you have rightly pointed out. The first one is, he is asking me to indicate the value or each parcel of Government owned land that has been designated for affordable housing project in Nairobi, Mombasa, Nakuru and Kisumu counties, and indicate how many of the said parcels are currently being or have been developed since 2017. Since 2017, the Government has identified and designated about 575 land parcels, totalling to about 12,000 hectares distributed across the country. These parcels were submitted by the individual Ministries, counties, departments ---

Madam Cabinet Secretary, I can see your response is quite long and very elaborate. Therefore, I wanted to get from the hon. Member whether he has been able to go through this response, so that we can save some time. Subsequently, if you have gone through the response, which specific section do feel that you need to be responded to? Kindly, take us to that particular part of the question.

. Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I am satisfied. The answers are okay.

Let me finish. You have really appreciated and also said you are now on board. It is as if you had asked this Question before you came on board with that tag. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, kindly, have your seat.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I have gone through the answers and I am happy and comfortable. However, I have supplementary questions.

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Good. Is there any other Member who wants to speak on affordable housing such as Sen. Faki? Sen. Chute, did you say you have no supplementary questions?

I have supplementary questions.

Okay, just ask your supplementary question that is specific on a particular matter in order to save some minutes.

Thank you very much, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Article 43(1)(b) is very clear on the issue of settling people. I want the Cabinet Secretary to note that we had former Buxton tenants who, in fact, brought a petition to this House. I am in the Committee on Roads, Transportation and Housing. We agreed that these people should be resettled. They are 184 and they are to be given the first priority to be resettled in Buxton Estate. I would want the Cabinet Secretary to tell us if these people are going to be resettled. When are they going to be resettled? Could she give a commitment through this House for those people to come and sit with her and finalize this matter? The other issue I have is on rural housing. The Cabinet Secretary is aware that we passed the amended law, which has the component of rural housing. In her regulations, what is she going to do for those people who cannot afford urban housing and who want to settle in Marsabit, Isiolo, Wajir and all those places? How is she going to cater for all those people that can be settled in those areas? I thank you.

Thank you. Proceed, Hon. Cabinet Secretary.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. The hon. Senator has been following on the issue of the tenants who had occupied the land in the Buxton project in Mombasa. According to the Senator, the tenants who occupied the land in Buxton Project in Mombasa are 184. I do not want to confirm that you can bring 184 people into my office. If they have leadership, then the leadership can visit me or you wait until when I will go to Mombasa. Perhaps, I can plan better by going to Mombasa and we deal with it at that level instead of them coming all the way to Nairobi. We can then see what issues are still remaining. However, in the meantime, those issues can be documented and forwarded to me through your office, hon. Senator, or through the leadership. I suppose these people have some leadership. Through their leadership, they can document the issues and send them to me. After looking at the issues, I will then decide whether I will visit Mombasa and have a meeting there. On the question of rural housing, this was a provision that this Senate found necessary in the Affordable Housing Bill. As a Ministry, our work is to implement. We are preparing the regulations. I believe the Senate will be part of that preparation. I may not be able to give a concrete answer because this will require us to examine materials, technology, the budget, how we manage in terms of economies of scale, and who and how do we deal with cases of the rural setup.

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We are talking about the whole country. There will be a need for a budget. We need to rationalise and see what is suitable. Whatever material that the Government puts money on, it must also be put in the building code that approves materials. The building code is coming to the House. Therefore, it is not an answer that you can get immediately, but it is something that we will all work on. Of course, we need to look at technology as part of the solution. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Sen. Onyonka, proceed.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was nearly becoming anxious because I have not had an opportunity to meet the Cabinet Secretary before she became the Cabinet Secretary. The last time I was with her, she was making a political commentary on the television. She told me that they will win and we will lose, but I told her that they will lose and we will win. Then, she told me that, in fact, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his friends and everybody will go. I am now shocked that the other side is now telling Mama Ngina “sorry”. I was excited to see her because I have utmost respect for her. Madam Cabinet Secretary, I also want to sincerely thank you for confirming Mr. Nyandoro. He happens to come from where he does, but I am happy that you looked at meritocracy and agreed to give the best qualified person the job. I really thank you for that. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the supplementary question I am asking the Cabinet Secretary maybe suggestive. Would the Cabinet Secretary be comfortable to confirm to this House that the issues that are bedeviling the Ministry of Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development and the land question in this country are very simple things? For example, we have no spatial planning which is completed, we do not know which parcels of land were allocated and who allocated them and whether they suffice on the legality of their existence. Also, the issues that are in Kitale right now about prison’s land are questions which are historical. The challenge that we have is that the institutions which are supposed to function and, indeed, one of those institutions is her Ministry, have been unable to perform and deliver on the issue of land. Would the Cabinet Secretary be comfortable to tell this House whether, therefore, it is possible to make sure that in the shortest time possible, we have spatial planning, so that we can do what the Rwanda Government has done? What is shocking or may not be shocking is that the people who did the spatial planning for Rwanda are Kenyans, and they are known. Is it possible that we can also do that, so that when somebody is buying land or has been allocated land or is having a problem with their land, they can immediately have the detail, the size of the land, the location of the land, the value of the land and any development on that land? Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir.

Thank you. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, proceed.

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Hon. Deputy Speaker, I take the commendation and the congratulatory note from the hon. Senator with humility. We did very many debates with him at the national television and many times, he would get very upset with my contributions. However, that was for debate purposes. I warned him severally, but he refused to listen. I hope that I have permission to speak like that on this floor. I hope he can---

I will allow the two of you to exchange those pleasantries.

Thank you. I hope he will now read the signs early so that we can be on the same page. However, suffice to say that he is a very able debater. All of us benefited from his contributions during the debates. He raises very fundamental issues on what is ailing the entire Ministry in respect of land tenure and security. The question of land security is key. We are planning with that in mind because we would want to guarantee security of tenure and records. That is why, as a Government, we have agreed to go digital. As I stand here, I get very upset because of the stories I hear. My officers know that I have said there is no way you can give me a response that the file is missing. Whenever a file is missing, there is some funny business going on and some irregularities are likely to be committed by disappearance of a file. This is something that the country must also now agree. I take the opportunity to urge the public not to take land security casually and not to engage in buying land that they have not received a proper certification in terms of searches and record checks by the land registries. Having said that, I have also told the Government officers managing our registries that they will take personal responsibility. We have so far taken action against three or four of them. Two are under suspension since I came in and two are already facing court charges because of irregular documentation of land. It is quite a task. The answer will be use of technology and digitization. I believe that is something we must aspire for and what we should be looking forward to as a country. During my tenure, I should be put to task to complete digitization. We have two types of spatial planning; the county and the national spatial planning. The national spatial planning is complete. The challenge we are having is the county spatial planning. Without appearing to accuse the counties, the governors have not taken up this. They have a challenge. Very few have taken it up. If I am correct, about 10 counties are on course. The others are not on course. It is very important to have spatial planning because lack of planning is planning to fail. Therefore, I am calling upon the counties to take up this task very seriously. We are also in the process of doing necessary geospatial surveys, mapping, georeferencing and cadastral preparations for us to go digital. This is an exercise that is going on. We have to use cadastral preparation and geo-referencing so that we can resolve many disputes relating to survey and boundaries.

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Therefore, this Government will be on course. That is where we need to put our money. We will be able to deal with land grabbers up to 100 per cent if need be. I have no tolerance for them. Some of them have called me arrogant when they are facing court cases for whatever reason. I know some of them are very unhappy while some of them are also very influential. Therefore, we need to just use our documentation properly so that we can keep away people who want to steal both public and private land. Thank you.

That was a long answer for the number one question from Sen. Onyonka. It involved three parts; political, social and then the question itself. Hon. Senators, we have four Senators on the queue. We really need to close with the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development. I will share one-and-half minutes to every Member. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, if you do not have the exact answer, you can give the answers later so that we can make some progress. Sen. Abass, you may have the Floor.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. Cabinet Secretary, I have seen some houses under construction in Wajir Township. How many units are they and how high will the houses go? Wajir has many challenges in terms of the soil structure, sanitation and sewerage due to the high level of water. I do not know whether the project that is being undertaken has considered all those factors. The soil structure is actually sandy. If you will be building high rise buildings, you might experience some challenges. I would like to know how many they are, their height and whether you have taken into consideration the sewerage system and all the other things that exist in Wajir currently.

Cabinet Secretary, is that a question you can answer now or you will provide the answer to the Senator later?

In Wajir, we have 220 units of different categories that are coming up. The original design is for social, affordable and a few market units. That is on course. For purposes of these houses, we shall have county projects at county level, but we shall also have constituency level projects. Wajir is one of the constituency level projects. We are also using the constituency as a unit to ensure equitable distribution of these projects because they mean a lot to us and the people of Kenya. They mean employment and economic spurring around the project areas. A single project such as this one would have between 300 and 400 youths. Not forgetting the other issues that arise such as the shops around receiving this money. It is not a bad project. Every constituency will have a project and we will endeavor to do that in the course of our term.

Sen. Kinyua, you may have the Floor. Take one minute.

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Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I congratulate the Cabinet Secretary. Apart from the regulations that were mentioned by Sen. Chute, concerning the rural affordable housing, for that to be effective, we need to ensure that we provide land ownership documents to the owners of the land. What is she doing, especially to the people living in the slums? These are the people who need those homes more than anyone else. If you come to Laikipia and go to villages such Maina, Lekiji and Majengo, they do not have title deeds. Apart from those villages in Laikipia, what is she doing concerning the land ownership especially for those people living in the villages and in rural areas?

Madam Cabinet Secretary, you may respond.

Hon. Senator, if you mean colonial villages, I had already answered that question and said that during my tenure, I am going to finish titling for all the colonial villages. I know where Maina Village is. There are many such villages where titling is a problem. This is because, most of the time, the land does not belong to the people living there. They are parcels of land given to them either by the chiefs or by people who just come, grab and start issuing titles wherever they find empty land. It is not easy to first issue titles because all titles follow planning. The way most of those houses are built, you will find that even planning for roads, sewerage purposes or facilities becomes very complicated. I am aware that we have been asked to do titling for Maina Village in Laikipia and we are looking at it. I can give you details of whether that would be done. It is quite a task but we will endeavor to see---. This is because, the cases of how small can you go in terms of the parcels of land also becomes a big challenge. Some people own places that are not even 0.0000 something. Therefore, you can imagine that it is not an easy task. I am coming back to this House before June with the National Land Policy. I think I have answered that question. In terms of the regulations, you can help us think through because we will be coming to you. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I did not answer the question on water, sanitation and sewerage by the Senator for Wajir County. However, he knows that where we build, we work with other Government agencies to provide necessary facilities, be it water or sewerage. If there is no water, we will ensure there is connectivity. If there is no sewerage, then, we will be able to provide necessary sewerage system for that specific project.

Sen. Faki, you may have the Floor.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, my question is in regards to the affordable housing. There are members of the Public Service who live in Mbotela Estate, Shauri Moyo and part of Jogoo Road in Nairobi, who have been issued with notices to vacate their houses for construction of new units. These units were constructed about 10 years

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ago during the Kibaki administration. They are fairly new and modern houses. I wonder why the Government is demolishing such units at a time when people do not have houses. Thank you.

Can I combine with the supplementary question from the Senator for Nairobi City County? It might involve the same projects.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. When the Cabinet Secretary appeared before us at the Committee on Roads, Transportation and Housing, we explained to her our objections to the Housing Act and explained to her that it was on principle. I am sure that she is aware that we, the Minority, are still going to ask the courts to have the last say, led by Sen. Okiya Omtatah. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, on the question that was raised by my colleague from Mombasa, Sen. Faki, that the Ministry has given the residents of Jogoo Road, Phase I and II, Jamaa, Mbotela, Ahero and Mawenzi Gardens notice to vacate their houses by 30th April, 2024, you see the notice that was sent to the residents contains a clause that says- “…tenants will be accorded priority to purchase or rent a house once the development is complete.” In addition to the question that has been raised by Sen. Faki and I have a photo of those houses here, these are not houses you can compare to Lumumba Estate that were built in the 1950s. These houses are less than 10 years old. What is the rationale of demolishing such houses to build something that will look exactly like this? We believe it is wastage of public resources. Secondly, could the Cabinet Secretary confirm whether there are agreements that have been signed between the Ministry and these residents that will guarantee them what the Ministry is saying in this notice? This was the same story the residents of Buxton were told but when the houses were built, it became another story. We said we do not want another Buxton. I would like the Cabinet Secretary to assure me, as the Senator for Nairobi City, that agreements have been signed with the current residents of these estates, that they will be given first priority when the units are built. I thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir.

Thank you. That is the last supplementary question to the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development. Kindly, summarise those two questions from the two Senators, and then we call it a day.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the two questions are the same, regarding Shauri Moyo, Mbotela and the various estates along Jogoo Road that we gave notices for people to vacate. As a Government and a Ministry, we also listen. This question was raised by the hon. Senator for Nairobi City when I appeared before them before the passing of the Housing Levy Bill. I believe he is now on board and if he is not, I am sure he will soon be on board because this housing programme is a useful project for the people of Kenya.

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Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the Mbotela and Shauri Moyo Estates, we are coming up with various projects there because the land is large and the number of people living in those houses--- The hon. Senator will agree with me that those houses do not hold a total of 2,000 or 3,000 people. When you look at the entire land, and what we can do with affordable housing, then that would be putting the land into better use. This is because, the Ministry manages the land and land use is under my docket. Therefore, this Monday and last week, my teams from the Ministry and Department of Housing visited these places and there is an agreement. I have been advised that the residents are now in agreement and we are extending the notice to October or November. We have also agreed that we shall facilitate relocation to the people affected by the projects. It is a small amount of money and His Excellency the President has expressed himself on that. The Ministry provides some little amount of money for relocation. You can pay your rent depending on the agreement in each place and between six and one year, we are able to provide the rent for a similar house - noting that many of them are paying rent where they are. They have told us how much rent they are paying and we will give that for six months. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, there is an agreement and the notice will be extended and will be in writing. I thank you.

Thank you, Madam Cabinet Secretary.

Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, I believe I have answered the entire Question.

Yes. That is the end of the Question and answer session with the Cabinet Secretary for Lands, Public Works, Housing and Urban Development. Thank you, Madam Cabinet Secretary, for your elaborate answers. The Member who is happy today is the Senator for Nairobi City. He is a happy man because all his issues have been addressed professionally. I welcome the Cabinet Secretary back to the Senate any other time we request her to avail herself.

for the good work you are doing to Kenyans.

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, from myself and my team.

When I refer to you, it is you, your entire team and the family as well.

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Hon. Senators, we now have the Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum, who is coming before the Senate. He should be ushered in. He has two Questions from the Senator for Kirinyaga, (Dr.) James Murango and the Senator for Marsabit County, Sen. Mohamed Chute. Do you still have instructions, Sen. Mbugua? .

Welcome Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum. Thank you for finding time to come before the Senate. You are a frequent visitor to the Senate and we thank you that you have the time. You do not postpone when you are asked to come. That is a good indication that you are ready to serve this country. We will go to the first Question from the Member for Kirinyaga, County. Sen. Mbugua?

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir. I beg to ask the Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum the following Question on behalf of the distinguished Senator for Kirinyaga,

. (a) Is the Cabinet Secretary aware of the breakdown of over 15 Government- owned power transformers in Kirinyaga County between March and September, 2023? If so, could the Cabinet Secretary explain the reasons behind it? (b) Could the Cabinet Secretary explain the inordinate delay in replacing defective power transformers in Kirogo, Maendeleo and Riagicheru villages within Mwea Constituency, despite multiple requests for their replacement? (c) What measures has the Government put in place to ensure the timely repair or replacement of defective power transformers?

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you may proceed to respond to the Question from the Senator for Kirinyaga.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, and hon. Senators, good morning. I am happy to be here this

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morning to respond to the Questions that have been raised. As has been said, I am a frequent member here. I am happy to address some of the challenges as we look forward to building our country together. Following the letter dated 13th February, 2024, which invited us to come and respond to the Question that has been raised by the hon. Member on whether we are aware of the breakdown of over 15 Government-owned power transformers in Kirinyaga County in the last six months and the reasons behind that, I wish to note that the above Question had been asked under Question No.059 on 4th October, 2023. The Ministry is aware and the breakdown of those transformers has been continuously addressed through Kenya Power Company. We replace them once reported. A breakdown of transformers has been experienced, not only in Kirinyaga County, but also in different counties. That has been occasioned by incidences of vandalism of transformers and earthing insulations; illegal connections which when they are done without due respect to the capacity of those transformers, cause overloading. Sometimes, we lose transformers frequently because of those illegal connections, therefore, overloading those transformers. Thirdly, the faults on the low voltage lines due to trees and the environmental challenges causes breakdown from time to time. Hon. Senators, to counter these incidences and improve on reliability of the grid, the Government has put up the following measures- (i) Continuous monitoring is done on the power network to ensure failed transformers are replaced in the shortest possible time. (ii) Listing of power installation is under critical infrastructure, as a result, there is a special police unit called Energy Police Unit that is mandated to protect all energy infrastructure from generation transmission to distribution. Let me give a small background of the challenges and why we are trying to play a catch-up game in these areas of transformers. We have had as I mentioned and will again mention in the next Question, a serious litigation on the procurement front. When power goes off and it is a transformer, it is expected that we respond immediately because it is a critical service supporting hospitals, among other critical functions. When we lose a transformer and have a litigation on procurement of transformers, which you maybe aware, lasted between two to three years, there was so much backlog. At one time, we had many transformers paid for by customers up to 951. We were not able to procure because of those litigation issues. Transformers which were required for the funded Government last mile schemes were up to 561 which we were unable to procure. We created a backlog of up to 1700 transformers, creating a challenge in addressing some of these transformers. That is why we have had this transformer challenge on why we do not immediately bring in a replacement when there has been a breakdown. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir and Senators, we are on top of this trying to ensure the problem of transformers is addressed once and for all so that we do not have these inordinate delays in replacing defective transformers. I do not know whether the question on inordinate delay in replacing defective power transformers in Kirogo, Maendeleo and

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Riagicheru villages within Mwea Constituency despite multiple request for replacement has been put to the Floor.

Unless Sen. Mbugua is with such details, I believe you can respond to in your next question, which is supplementary to the earlier question. Otherwise, the response you have just given is specific to the first Question. If there is any supplementary, I believe the hon. Senator will inquire so that you can respond to it as well.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I would like the Cabinet Secretary to assure the country and this House that we have enough transformers in the country. Two, could he also confirm to this House that he has put measures in place to ensure the transformers coming in are not substandard?

Proceed, hon. Cabinet Secretary.

Thank you for that question. There is a current procurement process going on for a significant number of transformers to address the shortfalls and basically to deal with the challenge you raised in the first and the second question. We work very closely and accompanying me to the House today is our Principal Secretary, Alex Wachira; the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Kenya Power Limited, Engineer Siror, and the CEO for Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO), Eng. Dr. John Mativo. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I confirm that we are looking at the quality of transformers. We have also made requirements for procurement of transformers that can be localized to a market. We have developed standards and work with the international community to ensure we are able to manufacture and assemble the transformers in Kenya. In this procurement circle that I mentioned, we are getting adequate transformers to address the challenge of shortage of transformers. We have addressed those quality challenges so that we do not experience the challenge of transformers failing. One of the assurances on quality is to be given warranty, which is a statement of quality that means if there is a breakdown, you replace a transformer at no additional cost. We have taken all those precautions to ensure we protect our investments, our customers and downtime, which causes more loss. We are on top of that. Working together with my team, we assure Kenyans, through this House, that we will procure quality transformers and pitch for that warranty to confirm quality against failure we have seen in the past.

Thank you very much, hon. Cabinet Secretary. From my dashboard, I have got a list of eight Members who I believe want to ask supplementary questions to the Cabinet Secretary. However, when you look at the number of questions to the second question No.20 by Sen. Chute, it is more or less related, but nationwide. Therefore, I would direct that we allow Sen. Chute to ask that Question. Thereupon, all supplementary questions by Members can be asked for the Cabinet Secretary to respond to all of them. Sen. Chute, proceed to ask Question No.20.

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Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I beg to ask the Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum the following Question- (1) Which entities were responsible for the disruptions of power supply in most parts of the country on Saturday, 11th November, 2023, and the nationwide power blackout that occurred on Friday, 25th August, 2023. Could the Cabinet Secretary state any actions taken against the entities? (2) Could the Cabinet Secretary provide a comprehensive report on the losses incurred by businesses because of the power disruptions, while clarifying whether the affected businesses will be compensated? (3) What measures has the Government put in place to ensure the stability of the national electricity grid to prevent the recurrence of such power disruptions?

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you may proceed to respond to the questions by Sen. Chute.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker. Thank you, Sen. Chute, for that question that touches on the outage that was experienced and disruption of power supply experienced in most part of the country on that Saturday 11th November, 2023 and the nationwide blackout that occurred on August Friday 2023 and actions we have taken against the agencies. Hon. Senators, let me respond to the status of the investigation into the nationwide power outage on those two dates. At the time when we experienced that national outage, the system demand at the time of that occurrence was way below the peak demand. There was enough power on the grid, as we were only taking in 1,855 megawatts within the generation mix of hydro, which at that time was delivering 355 megawatts. Geothermal at that time was delivering 817 megawatts. Thermal was delivering 244 megawatts. The wind was at 356 megawatts. We did not have any imports from Uganda. We were feeding them two megawatts because we do a power exchange with Uganda. At this particular time, we were pushing two megawatts to Uganda. We were getting 100 megawatts from Ethiopia through what we call Electrical Engineering Portal (EEP). The first event related to the outage was recorded by our system at the National Control Centre in Dandora, the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, at 21 hours, 45 minutes, 09 seconds, 187 milliseconds. I stress that because we record events to milliseconds or any occurrence because sometimes, we want to see the sequence of events, what happened before which event. That outage was associated with what we call a dynamic reactive power compensation system at Lake Turkana Wind Power in Loyangalani. The analysis of the event revealed

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that the compensation unit was responding to a dip. The system seemed to have seen a dip in voltage. Though the dip occurred at almost the same time with a sub-transmission line, a 66 kV line at Athi River substation, which was recorded at 21 hours, 45 minutes, 09 seconds, and 277 milliseconds, you will see that the dip occurred at about 100 milliseconds later in our Athi River substation. It is, however, unusual for such faults to affect the grid, owing to the fact that the lines are at downstream in terms of being the last mile side of consumption. Therefore, we do not expect that unusual fault to affect the grid, because the lines are, like I said, downstream of the grid. The resultant impact on the transmission grid should be minimal. Examination of the waveforms and the events in the SCADA system shows that Lake Turkana Wind Project or power plant tripped in 140 milliseconds when the voltage dip was slightly above 80 per cent of the normal 220 voltage, contrary to conditions stipulated in the grid code, which require the system to hold for at least two seconds for a fault right through. The fault can be allowed to go through if the system is to hold for two seconds. However, this reactive power reacted, and in less than 140 milliseconds, the system shut down. That caused a challenge, which cascaded down and ran us into that challenge. That was the problem. On the 11th of November, 2023, Kenya Transmission National Grid with an installed capacity generation of 2,806 megawatts, with geothermal at that time of 852, hydros 810, thermal 506, wind 426 megawatts and solar 212 megawatts. The national grid is interconnected with Uganda through a 132kv double circuit line between Lessos and Tororo substation, and Ethiopia's electric power is through a 500kv high voltage DC line linking Suswa. On that particular day, this was the second partial blackout on the 11th November, 2023, at 19 hours 57 minutes, the country experienced a partial outage of the electric power system. The system demand before the outage, again, was approximately 22,057 megawatts distributed as shown in the table on the statement, which I have signed and given to the House. Hydros 553, geothermal 800 megawatts, thermal 234, wind 334, imports 136, totaling 2057 megawatts. You will note again that was way below the generation capacity of the country or the peak power that we have seen before, so it was nothing to do with the shortage of power generation. The power supply disturbance was triggered by a trip on 80-megawatt transformers at Olkaria Two and Olkaria One and additional unit substations. Olkaria-Naivasha line 132 line also tripped at the same time. The cost was attributed to a failed jumper cable at Olkaria 1 132k substation. The substation was commissioned in 1992 and reconstruction work, in addition to upgrading of the generator, is due to commence this year. The loss of the 170 megawatts and Naivasha 132 kilovolts line resulted in increased power flow from Olkaria to Kibos 220 KV line and Suswa, Nairobi North 220 KV line. The shift in the power flows caused an overload in one of the very weak links we have in the West of Kenya, Kisumu Muhoroni, which is the very reason why we are accelerating the construction of Narok- Bomet.

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The Kisumu-Muhoroni 132 KV line and the two 200 megawatt transformers at Dandora 220 substation, Kisumu- Muhoroni 132 line then tripped on an overload further, overloading the transformers at Dandora which tripped. With a trip of these critical lines and cascade trip of Juja, Naivasha, Kibos, Kisumu 132 to Moroni, the Western part of the country was kind of isolated. It was islanded and we then saw that partial challenge. This led to several imbalances in the system. When the system tried to balance itself in a very short time that imbalance really in terms of the cascading of the challenges caused that challenge of partial outage. As I said, this led to several imbalances in the system leading to the cascade trip of generators in Olkaria, Nairobi causing loss of Ethiopia transmission and Uganda imports and the loss of generation led to that partial collapse of the system. However, the Mt. Kenya grid system was islanded with generators at Kamburu and Gitaru running and tied to the customers connected to this part of the grid. You will note that because it was a partial outage, we were able to restore power within three and a half hours and so the restoration activities began at 2011 hours on the same day and supply to the customers was finally restored fully by 1.39 hours in the morning with sufficient generations availed. Hon. Senators, joint technical and operational teams in the energy sector have continuously reviewed such major disturbances with resultant improvements, and recommendations, some of which have been implemented. These endeavors and efforts have continued to reduce the frequency and severity of system disturbances, especially those that would cascade and lead to nationwide grid collapse despite its vulnerability. System defense mechanisms such as effective under-frequency load shedding are some of the strategies we have employed today and the provision of emergency overload capacity for critical transmission lines has been employed and is working well. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, what you will possibly notice for a while is that we have not seen some of these systems. What I am saying is, when we have an overload, we would rather pull down some of the feeders or de-load a network and not push power and overload the system that would cascade and cause a nationwide or the kind of partial blackout that we have been talking about. What we do, and you will possibly notice this more in the area of Bomet because of Muhoroni-Chemosit. When there is an overload in that line, because that line is built on a capacity of about 89 megawatts, and many times it will be carrying up to 120 or 140 megawatts in Muhoroni-Chemosit down to Sotik, all the way to Awendo. Sometimes we have to de-load the line by pulling some of the customers down so that we do not overload the country. So, some of the black holes that you see sometimes are what we are calling here ‘effective under frequency load shedding’ to manage the capacity of the system, so that in a way we are islanding, we are isolating the problem to that small area by bringing it down and, therefore, sustaining the rest of the country. However, the proposed key projects especially alternative transmission lines for evacuating power from key generation points, which are pending, pose a major challenge in operating the network optimally. We have attached a comprehensive list of recommended, critical grid enhancement projects, which are in various stages of implementation in the annex.

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Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, allow me at this point to point to the fact that the energy sector in Kenya is almost fully unbundled to the extent that the generation, transmission, and the off taker operate independently with their balance sheet and systems, KETRACO today is still supported on the government balance sheet. Therefore, we are working very quickly employing the Public Private Partnership (PPP) framework to see how KETRACO, with the limited government resources, is able to work through the PPP framework to attract private investors to build a transmission system, remove the constraints on the overloaded circuits and be able to forestall this challenge. Several circuits today are undergoing evaluation through the PPP framework so that KETRACO can leverage private investment and be able to forestall some of these challenges. Some of the actions are that the Ministry is addressing the root cause of grid instability and is formulating lasting solutions to comprehensively address the weaknesses. One of them is what I just mentioned which is through the PPP framework. Further, the Government, together with our development partners, is working on a grid reinforcement plan to ensure the frequent blackouts experienced lately do not become a persistent matter. The government is committed to having a reliable, sustainable, and resilient national grid system, and to an extent where, as I said, generation seems to be doing well. The off taking through Kenya Power Company and what we are doing to strengthen their balance sheet, you have lately realized that we have allowed Kenya Power minority shareholders to participate in the structure of corporate governance by bringing in four independent directors to represent the interest of the 49.9 percent shares, which are routed through the Nairobi Stock Exchange. The Government side today is represented by five members. Those are some of the reforms which we are working through with Kenya Power to address governance issues and address the power losses from the current 22 per cent. We have given ourselves 16 per cent in the next three years to address the issue of the balance sheet so that the Kenya Power balance sheet can be strong enough to go out there and do what it needs to do for the country in assuring us of reliable, sustainable, resilient on the national grid to what I have said in the PPP framework. This is so that we do not have to only come to Parliament to look for resources to build the infrastructure nationally. It can be built by the private sector, leveraging on the electrons that flow on that network. The way we toll our road highways, we should be able to toll the lines and get return on investment on the PPP framework. I thank you.

Thank you, hon. Cabinet Secretary for your very elaborate response to the question by Sen. Chute. Now, hon. Members, I have 11 requests on my dashboard. I believe these requests are supplementary questions. As I allow you, I would like to direct you that we limit the amount of time each Member will take to ask a question. I would like to direct you to be guided by Standing Order No.51(c)(vii), on supplementary questions. I will not hesitate to rule anyone out of order in the event of non-compliance with that Standing Order. For order, I will limit

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each Member to one question within two minutes, starting with the Senate Majority Leader, Sen. Aron Cheruiyot.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir---

On a point of order Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir.

What is your point of order, Sen. Chute?

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I have two supplementary questions.

Very well. Yes. I will allow you to go first.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I want to take this opportunity to first thank the Cabinet Secretary and the Principal Secretary on behalf of the people of Marsabit County. We visited the office of the Cabinet Secretary some time back because of the problems we had with electricity in Marsabit County, and that problem has been solved through his efforts and that of his Principal Secretary. Thank you very much on behalf of our people. The question that I want to ask is who is going to foot the bill? Who is going to pay the cost that the business people incurred and the damages? That is my question. The other question is this: KenGen is going to come to Marsabit County very soon. They have already started the public participation process, and the Cabinet Secretary is aware that we had an issue with Lake Turkana wind power and the issue is still before the court. Can the Cabinet Secretary tell us what he will do in regard to KenGen going to Loiyangalani for the supply of electricity? Finally, I want to ask the Cabinet Secretary to tell us how far he has gone on the issue of the line from Lake Turkana Wind Power going into Marsabit and Isiolo.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, please, proceed to respond.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Sen. Chute, thank you for the compliments, we are at your service. If there are issues that we can deal with one by one, we will be happy to do so because we have one goal, to build this country together. Let me answer the second question on what we are doing or what KenGen is doing to better service the Loiyangalani or the constituency from which we draw 310 megawatts of wind, the biggest power plant in Africa on wind, and yet the people of Loiyangalani see the power being evacuated by those enormous transmission lines through the five counties into Suswa to the significant load centres. Under the last mile connectivity, and we appreciate the kind of funding that Parliament gives us to support the social aspect of the distribution of power, we recognise that we need to service the residents of this area. There is a project which Sen. Chute must be aware of. We are building a high-voltage line from Loyangalani to Marsabit and from Marsabit to Isiolo.

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When we came into office that project had been processed together with the Gilgil-Thika-Malaa and payments had been made for the counterpart funding to support the foreign side which was coming from the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM). The payment was not enough so immediately we descope the two projects: the Loyangalani- Marsabit-Isiolo from Gilgil-Thika-Malaa. This meant that we could take Gilgil-Thika- Malaa on to a Public Private Partnership (PPP) the one I talked about- and it is advancing well. The Loyangalani-Marsabit-Isiolo then remained with the payment which represents 15 percent of the payment required as counterpart funding so that we can draw the EXIM funds and build that line. We are further descoping that project to ensure that as we build it, we can step down from 400 kilovolts (kV) to 132kV and 66kV and service that community. As we go to Isiolo we can step down from 400kV through the descoping and ensure we service the people Marsabit County as the line comes down. It is at an advanced stage. The descoping work is going on through EXIM. In principle, we are done on the Kenyan part and payment has been made. We should be seeing it as soon as we are done with our partners, China EXIM, and the line contractor going to the site because payment has already been made on the counterpart Kenya portion. As soon as we finish with China EXIM, we will not only see the big lines being built but the step down from those high voltages to those that feed the communities coming out. For the first time, together with the last mile, we shall see Loyangalani- Marsabit on the grid coming down to Isiolo where we have the 132kV line. Hon. Members we would be happy to see that region on the grid because Marsabit County is rich in wind and solar resources. As we pull the resources to the significant industry or load centers, we will be serving the communities coupled with the last mile programmes where you fund us, as Parliament. Regarding the first Question on compensation, when we have a major blackout that impacts the whole country, the point would be to establish the cause and apportion the blame. That is why you hear me reading up to the millisecond when the event occurred in order to find out whether the private investor power plant in Lake Turkana went out first and caused the problem or was it caused by the Juja Substation 220kV which came in 100 milliseconds later. That work is going on. However, hon. Members when we have a blackout it is so significant in terms of losses for the country. As I said, when we have a company like the Kenya Power where we are restructuring its balance sheet--- Kenya Power stops all the Independent Power Producers (IPP)s in terms of the partial risk guarantees that support power generation for Kenya. Unlike the banks, if one goes down, the others shall still be there. We need to take care of Kenya Power even as we go from one market player to an open market where we shall be allowing generators to produce power and wheel it to markets or load centers using the wheeling policy, which is shortly being gazetted for purposes of allowing multiple players in the industry. An unbundled market means that you should be able to generate your own power in a power plant and get Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) to wheel it to market for you and sell it to industry, whenever you want to sell in the

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country. That then removes Kenya Power from being required to transmit and reticulate. The unbundling is a significant aspect of what we have done in opening up of the market, so that we then move from a one-market buyer; where Kenya Power buys all the energy and distributes to an open market to where anybody can generate and use KETRACO to wheel the power to market and sell it to industry. A lot of work is still going on with the compensation space, including determining how much we can compensate when there is something like a national disaster or major accident. Challenges where Kenya Power is culpable such as a cabling problem or a transformer issue do not present a problem in compensation, and we do so from time to time. However, when we have a national challenge like when the whole network goes out because of something close to a national disaster, it becomes challenging to say who should compensate because we would certainly be closing down a company that we need to support the rest of the economy. We need to pay attention to the compensation space. Compensation does happen where the faults are very specific and pertain to what was avoidable to the extent that Kenya Power would compensate the affected families and businesses. How do we then compensate if it is a national challenge; which if costed the entire company could go under and therefore cause a challenge for the entire country? I thank you.

Thank you, Hon. Cabinet Secretary. I will now allow Members to ask supplementary Questions. I will start with Sen. Faki.

Asante Bw. Spika wa Muda. Swali langu ni kuhusu kupotea kwa umeme katika Kaunti ya Mombasa haswa wakati huu wa mwezi mtukufu wa Ramadhan. Limekuwa jambo la kawaida umeme kupotea mara kwa mara katika Kaunti ya Mombasa na maeneo ya karibu haswa tunapokuwa tunafanya ibada za usiku. Wengi wanashindwa kuhudhuria ibaada hizo kwa sababu ya ukosefu wa umeme na vile vile kiusalama si rahisi mtu kutoka nyumbani ikiwa mataa barabarani yamezimika kwa sababu ya ukosefu wa umeme. Je, waziri ana mipango gani ya kuhakikisha kuwa kwa siku 14 ambazo zimebaki za mwezi huu mtukufu tutakuwa na umeme na sio katika Kaunti ya Mombasa pekee, lakini nchi nzima ili waisilamu wapate uwezo wa kumuomba Mungu wao bila matatizo yeyote? Asante.

Proceed, Cabinet Secretary.

Asante Sen. Faki. Mombasa Kaunti inatoa umeme wake kutoka kwa thermal. That is where we have most of the thermal power plants. The other generated power inayotumika sana Mombasa ni ile inayotoka Malindi kwa Solar Power Plant. We have a solar power plant ambayo inamilikiwa na kampuni inayoitwa Globeleq which is an IPP. It feeds 52 Megawatts peak (MWp) to the grid. Pia moto mingi inayotumika Kaunti ya Mombasa inatoka Olkaria Geothermal Plant. Kuna cascade line ya awali ya Kamburu inayoenda Mombasa but majorly geothermal inatoka Olkaria. Tumeshajenga laini ile na inabebea 400kV lakini currently

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we are operating at 220kV. Tutafungua stesheni kubwa hivi karibuni pengine baada ya mwezi moja au mbili. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is it one month? Tutaifungua July. The challenge in Mombasa County is the fact that most generation is happening out of Mombasa, and we are transporting power to the county. The only heavy generation particularly coming out of Malindi ni ile ya Jua. Jua ikipoteakidogo, inaanguka. Ikirudi, inaamka . What we are doing regarding the challenges of intermittence, we are trying to stabilize the power, ili tuhakikishe kwamba Mombasa is well served.

On a point of Order, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir.

Sen. Abdul Haji, what is your point of order?

Asante Bw. Spika wa Muda. Waziri ananichanganya. Anaongea Kiswahili na kubadilisha na kuongea Kizungu. Inakuwa ngumu kufuata maneno yake. Ningeomba Waziri azungumze kwa lugha moja.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, Sen. Abdul Haji, is concerned.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, let me speak in English. Hon. Senators, the challenge in Mombasa is that most of the generation happens out of the region. We transport the power to Mombasa. The power generation out of Weru in Malindi Solar Power Plant - most renewable plants like wind and solar are associated with intermittence. Intermittence is to say that you generate more power when there is wind, and wind is very powerful at night. When there is no wind, you have to replace it to take over and supply energy. This applies to solar energy too. Whereas we support Mombasa majorly with diesel generation, we have built a 400KV line between Olkaria to Isinya and Mariakani that will service Mombasa adequately with almost 100 per cent renewable energy. Mariakani is being commissioned in July. Since I am here with my team, we have had a challenge during Ramadhan. We will do more of what we are doing in Narok and Bomet to ensure that there is no overload or constraint in the transmission systems. Occasionally, this is because we are also building a line between Malindi, Weru and Kilifi. The funding is available together with the Narok and Bomet counties from South Korea and the Africa Development Bank. We are at the tendering stage for the one for Narok and Bomet. With the funding, there is so much happening in Mombasa. We recognize Mombasa as an important city during the holy month of Ramadhan and a water gateway to Kenya and the East Africa region. From the earlier meeting where we gave the National Treasury a cheque of Kshs5 billion on account of the profits made by Kenya Pipeline Company; we were looking at how to service the region better using our gateway and play that competitive advantage so that it does not go to our neighbors in Dar es Salaam. Sen. Faki, we are paying a lot of attention to Mombasa. The kind of investment coming to the region in transmission, power generation and looking at Dongo Kundu

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where we will take a transmission line; there is already funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to Dongo Kundu. The kind of infrastructural support is not because of Mombasa, but because making Mombasa service the whole East Coast of Africa will be significant. We beg for your support as we walk the journey together to address these challenges, which might not be finished during Ramadhan. However, I beckon my colleagues to ensure that what we talked about in managing the grid, so that we do not have small outages given the kind of temperatures and the lifestyle where every household needs air conditioning and the discomfort during the month of Ramadhan is addressed.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I want to thank the Cabinet Secretary because for the first time in the month of Ramadhan, Wajir County is getting power supply. Having said that, Wajir township is expanding and the machines are getting old and emitting heavy fumes causing pollution. What measures can be put in place? The station is surrounded by settlements and the pollution is too much. Something should be done. There was a plan for five Megawatt solar for Wajir County. Where has that plan gone? We are anxiously waiting for it. I would like to know the situation. What plan do you have for Wajir now that I hear my colleague here is almost getting benefits from wind power? Wajir County should also benefit from the wind power. It is a shorter route to Wajir County from Suswa along Naivasha. What is the plan for Wajir County to be part of the national grid? As it is, the county is growing, and we are experiencing the emergence of cottages.

Sen. Abass, you have asked your question. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, respond.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Hon. Members, regarding our plans for Wajir County to be supported through the Kenya Off-Grid Solar Access Project (KOSAP), we have received funding from a retiring Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from Poland, which we are pitching for. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for that fund of US$200 million to come to Kenya to support the development of areas like Wajir. We are ready as Kenya and have submitted that document to the other side. We should be signing before the end of April to draw that funding. A lot of that fund will support the off-grid systems but mostly we are looking at how to connect Garissa on the grid to Wajir. There is also a programme of hybridization where Wajir is currently being served 100 per cent by diesel generators. We are putting in a solar plant which can run during the day and if there is intermittence, the batteries will be there to support it. The diesel engine can only come on if the solar is challenged when the batteries are not running well enough. We are doing similar projects in seven counties. One which we have commissioned, and the President participated in the commissioning is Wasini in Lunga

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Lunga, where we have the solar plant. If the solar is not there, the batteries can run for three days. The diesel engine only comes on when the batteries go down. We are evaluating for counties like Turkana whether we should move on-grid from Lokichar to Turkana or do an off-grid, which is fairly solid and where a solar or wind plant can run and because of intermittence, the battery system can support for three days. Otherwise, a diesel generator can come. This is in line with Kenya's commitment to 2030 100 per cent green energy. Therefore, by 2030, we need to switch off all diesel engines. We should see some of the pronouncements I am making coming to fruition in 2026, 2027 and 2028. We will continue to work together, but this hybrid system of solar and diesel systems that should run all the time and is supported by batteries. This will remove some of the intermittence that we see today. Therefore, with the battery being a good form of storage for power, we should be able to--- but again, Sen. Chute and Sen. Abass, you have been to my office a few times. We can look at the details of these programmes for those off-grid areas and what we are doing together to support our country.

Thank you, Hon. Cabinet Secretary. Proceed, Sen. Ogola.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. My question is on a statement that I made last year in May to the Ministry, but relevant to the question today on faulty transformers. In my question, I had asked that the Ministry list a number of faulty transformers in Homa Bay County and provide timelines within which the transformers would be replaced. Precisely, the response came in time in the same month from the Ministry, which I appreciate so much. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, in the response, the Cabinet Secretary had given a list of transformers, 84 in number that were faulty, and went ahead to give two lists. One list has 21 transformers that would be replaced by the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC), by the 31st July, 2023, and another list was given of 63 faulty transformers that would be replaced by Kenya Power Company by 31st July, 2023. My question to the Cabinet Secretary is, is he aware that the commitment that was made by the Ministry to my response has not been honoured? I would like to know why and when that would be honoured?

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, could you respond to the question.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir and Sen. Ogola for that. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, allow me, because this is a very detailed question of 21 transformers with REREC and 63 with Kenya Power. Kenya Power is here with me through the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Siror.

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Sometimes, we say the challenge in Bomet is the transit to Homa Bay, because most of the power that comes to that region comes through Bomet, Kisii, through Kegati, Homa Bay, Awendo. It is not only a transformer challenge that we are facing in that region, it is compounded by the transmission constraint. Therefore, with the power outage, transformer challenge and the load shedding that I talked about earlier on, impacts that area heavily. I want to beg to be allowed, with the Kenya Power CEO who is sitting here, REREC gave an apology, through Dr. Rose Mukalama, the CEO for REREC who was supposed to be here with us, but she is attending to something outside Nairobi today. Therefore, to address this issue of 21 and 63 transformers, like I said, we are in a procurement cycle of so many transformers. If Kenya Power was to stand and respond on my behalf, they will say, as soon as these transformers are delivered, we will address a number of transformers not only in Homa Bay but in the country in terms of replacement. However, we really need some public awareness and support in terms of the abuse that goes to the transformers. We can bring in a new transformer today but as we take power to the the rural areas and because we have our Technical Training Institutions (TTIs) and we have trained our people, they have learnt to sometimes do illegal connections, which are not dimensioned and they overdraw power from the transformer. You can burn the coil and therefore lose a transformer. A transformer today runs for anything up to Kshs1 million to Kshs2 million depending on the kilowatt rating. The important thing is to ensure that customers are legitimately connected to the transformer and they are paying their bills. So that, they do not take shortcuts and burn a transformer then blame the quality of the transformer and yet it is our culture of wanting to use free power for that purpose. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, allow us, Sen. Beatrice, to respond substantively. Possibly, because there is a specific question impacting on Homa Bay, to deal with you directly to address what we promised. Like I said, there is a transformer procurement cycle which is just closed. How much can Kenya Power pick up? I am sure of the 63, some have been addressed. However, any that has not been addressed not only for Homa Bay but for the whole country, allow us to address that and respond more specifically to the question of the 21 transformers for REREC and 63 for Kenya Power. I thank you.

Thank you, Hon. Cabinet Secretary. Proceed, Sen. Abdul Haji.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Let me first take this opportunity to thank the Cabinet Secretary for appearing today and answering the questions of the Members, which, in reality, are questions from the public. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I would ideally be asking the Cabinet Secretary in relation to the frequent power outage in Garissa. However, I will not ask him that question because it has already been asked by the Senator from Mombasa and Wajir and it has been addressed. I would not want him to repeat.

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My question touches on the issues of transformers. The Cabinet Secretary has explained to us here that they have made some procurement. For a long period of time in Kenya, we have been told that the problem with Kenya Power is usually transformers. Therefore, my question hon. Cabinet Secretary is that I just want to inquire on whether or not we have any local manufacturers for transformers in Kenya. If we do, is the Ministry and Kenya Power procuring from the local manufacturers? If we do not have any local manufacturers for transformers, what is the Ministry doing to talk to local investors to give them incentives to set up manufacturing plants for transformers, so that we can stop relying on brokers and agents of foreign transformer manufacturers who bring us substandard products from time to time?

Thank you, Sen. Abdul Haji. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, respond and particularly in line with the second limb of the question because you had responded to the aspect of the transformers and the power outages.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker Sir and Sen. Abdul Haji. We will do our best during this holy month of Ramadhan to sustain those areas. This is because of the kind of lifestyle during the month of Ramadhan to make sure that people are comfortable, the air conditioning in our homes is working and so on and so forth. Like I said again, I am here with the CEO for Kenya Power. We are listening and we will act on that We have local transformer manufacturers. I think today, hon. Members, the requirements for importing transformers into the country are so difficult against local manufacturers. In fact, all transformers come out of local manufacturing. I do not know how much local it is in terms of assembling and manufacturing because you know transformer would be a coiling. We might not manufacture copper. So, it might be difficult to answer the question of how much raw materials is manufactured and how much is for assembling. However, the point today is that all transformers that come into the Kenyan market are locally manufactured particularly up to a certain kilowatt rating. The big transformers that we might not have the capacity comes from outside and we are building capacity for the local industry to be able to do that. We have a very stringent inspection and certification process. Kenya Power work with the local manufacturer transformer companies to ensure that we support them in this endeavour and, therefore, localize and create jobs for our industry. However, the point is, it would be difficult of 100 new transformers coming into the market, to get five imported transformers. It is basically locally manufactured.

Thank you, Hon. Cabinet Secretary. Proceed, Sen. Cheruiyot.

First, I congratulate the Cabinet Secretary and his team for a job well done in responding to questions that have been raised by Members and the leadership that they are providing to the Ministry.

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Listening to the answers, if the Cabinet Secretary can commit and assure us that the plans, as he has laid out this afternoon before the House, will be delivered then we are in a good place. I appreciate what they are doing as a team at the Ministry. I have one Question: When the Cabinet Secretary was responding, he mentioned the desire by the Government to move to 100 percent green energy by the year 2030 and the plans that that entails. Previously, in my life in this House, I served as a Member of the Energy Committee. I am aware that there are many people that you can call ‘tenderpreneurs’, for lack of a better word, in Kenya or in the famous capitals of the world, who are still holding exploration licenses for geothermal energy, which can help us as a country to access those sites and bring on show cheap and affordable power as opposed to the old generated power, some of which he has mentioned, like the diesel power. When is his Ministry going to take decisions against such business people so that we are able to enjoy cheaper power? That was a key promise that this administration made to the people of Kenya, yet that is yet to be fulfilled. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the next Question is of interest to you. If you want to throw me out, it is your people of Bomet who will benefit, just like my people. That is not a bribe to you. Can the Cabinet Secretary confirm to the House when they will commence the construction of this Narok-Bomet transmission line that will affect all of us that are in the western part of the country, to stop this quasi load-shedding that we continue to see each other day? The President made a pronouncement recently in his tour in Bomet, but we want to know when the works will commence. I thank you.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, proceed to respond to the two Questions by the Senate Majority Leader. You ought to have asked one supplementary question, but I exercise the discretion under Standing Order No.1.

Thank you, Senate Majority Leader, for raising what is very important for this country and for the world at large. To picture our country as a green renewable energy country, there will shortly be premium on green steel and green everything in terms of manufacturing, because it supports and addresses the challenges, which mitigation on climate change would otherwise be so expensive. We have the very irregular rainfall patterns. For example, it is very warm today, when it should be the coldest time of the year, causing difficult patterns on how we do our farming. That commitment of 100 per cent renewable energy country by 2030 has been made at all levels. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir and hon. Members, as you are aware, we are today at 93 per cent in terms of renewable energy. The seven per cent is the power that we get out of heavy fuel for picking. We do not have a coal plant and any fossil fuel except for picking in the evening when there is a certain surge of power demand, when industries are working, and we light our homes. That is only for four hours. However, for the rest of the hours in the day, we run renewable energy, except for what I said, we need to expire some of the diesel generations in the coast region. However, as mentioned by Sen.

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Cheruiyot, the expiring Power Purchase Agreement (PPAs) on the diesel generators are not being renewed. We have made that commitment. For every expiry of a PPA and their role coming to an end, we are coming in with renewable energy. We have just been pushing to commission some 70 megawatts out of Menengai sometime next year, and another 58 megawatts out of Wellhead generation from Olkaria. Therefore, our walk towards achieving 100 per cent, albeit with the challenges, we are going to walk that journey.

Sen. Cherarkey, Sen. Faki and Sen. Githuku, if you must consult, please, do so in low tones for the Cabinet Secretary to be heard in silence.

Hon. Members, the Kenya Kwanza Government plan recognizes one powerful statement, that we are going to accelerate the geothermal development in Kenya, which is one of our very good baseloads. What we are doing to that end, today we have very significant programmes in Suswa to open up Suswa and generate geothermal power to Suswa. We have about 80 megawatts out of Paka, which is in Tiaty. We are building a line from Loosuk to Lessos to pull out that power and generate power out of that area. We are working at Paka to open up that area. We have drilled the first well. It is heating up. There is so much activity in the geothermal development to support us, because geothermal is a very good baseload in terms of generating power all the time and availability. We gave concessions to some of the private developers, like the Senate Majority Leader mentioned. Concession comes with work programs. We are reviewing those work programmes, which have been attached to the concessions which were given to those private sector players. If they are not meeting the work programmes as signed in the concession, we should have those geothermal fields reverted to Government. However, we are working very closely to ensure that we achieve that target of 100 per cent renewable energy. Regarding the Narok-Bomet line, I just whispered and confirmed from Dr. Mativo, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) that we have already advertised the tender. You may not have seen it in the papers, but a number of restricted vendors of six companies were approved. They were given advance approval by Africa Development Bank (ADB). The six bidders are currently responding to those bids. It is closing in another two or three weeks. We will award, and instead of building that line in the traditional 24 months, we are going to build it in 12 months. I am told we have a commitment to deliver that line by 1st June, 2025. So, we are working around the clock to make sure that happens. In the meantime, to address that challenge, hon. Members, there was a contractor who passed on, who was doing a line from Sondu-Homa Bay-Awendo. We have brought

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in another contractor who is on site today to take power to Awendo through Homa Bay and load the Chemosit route. We are also addressing the load-shedding through managing the overloads to ensure that we do not have that challenge. Dr. Siror is doing a bay out of Lessos to take power straight to Muhoroni so that we do not go through Kibos in Kisumu to again de- load Kisumu-Muhoroni. There is a lot that we are doing to reduce the challenge in Bomet- Kericho-Kisii- Awendo transmission line so that we do not see the kind of load- shedding. Load- shedding is not a solution. We need to de-load those lines and remove those constraints and ensure our industries, hospitals and homes are lit. Hon. Members, there is a commitment from the CEO, who is sitting here with me, Dr. Mativo, that we will deliver the line by 1st June, 2025. Thank you.

Thank you, hon. Cabinet Secretary. Sen. Shakila Abdalla, proceed.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, my Question to the Cabinet Secretary is that there has been a power outage in Lamu for the last 10 months. This is due to the pylon, which was attacked, and it is causing many economic losses. Our health facilities are affected. Our dialysis machines and many other machines are damaged. Our fishing industry is very much affected. Our security is also affected. Could the Cabinet Secretary tell us when this pylon will be repaired, because It has taken 10 months and we have been suffering? We have written to the Directors and done a lot, but nothing has been done so far. Maybe the Cabinet Secretary can give us the answer today. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you may respond to the question. As you prepare to respond to that, let me allow Sen. Wamatinga to ask a supplementary question, so that both of them can be answered together.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity. Let me also kick it off by thanking the Cabinet Secretary for ably taking leadership in making very hard decisions, especially to bring innovative solutions to the power problem that has been a challenge in Kenya. Having noted that, yesterday, I was with the Head of the State, His Excellency the President. We noted that the students in polytechnics are very good, especially in modern technology. One of the students did a very nice presentation of a digital vandalism protection mechanism for the transformers. Having said that, Cabinet Secretary, now that we are moving into a higher demand for electricity and we know that we have to move to smart meters, is there any intention from the Government to ensure that we get local partners, especially institutions of higher learning who can train assemblers and manufacturers of these components that

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can be made in Kenya? This is so that we save on foreign exchange and most importantly, transfer the technology and also ensure that they can be readily available. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, lastly, I commend the fact that renewable energy is very important in Kenya. However, as the Senate Majority Leader asked, if the Cabinet Secretary aware that there are people who are supposed to join the grid in 2026 and nothing has been done, we run the risk of having demand but no supply.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, respond to the two questions now, the earlier one by Sen. Shakila Abdala and the other by the Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Energy, Sen. Wamatinga.

Let me take the challenge from the Senator of Lamu County, that was caused by some double tragedy, that is, the El Nino, that caused flooding and brought down some of our poles, but more importantly and not very loudly, three of our towers that were brought down. You know the towers that were hit. Luckily, we had some 33KV line, which provided some little relief, but the major 132KV line was hit. The Department of Defence (DoD) has cleared the site and we have now procured a contractor. In the next one week, the contractor will be on site to erect those three towers that were brought down. We should be able to restore normalcy in Lamu County. With respect to the flooding, that has not been a major one. I think we are quite advanced.

For Sen. Shakila Abdala - I know her very well, we have come a long way - we will address that in a short while. Since the site has been cleared, we will be able to bring those three towers up and restore normalcy in Lamu County in another one week. Sen. Wamatinga, thank you. With respect to what we have done as Government in bringing our Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVETs), to address the challenge of unemployment among our youths from our polytechnics, this is a question that goes along with the transformer. We are assembling and manufacturing transformers. I assure you, the few meters that still come to Kenya are unassembled and are not being reworked in Kenya because we do not have a policy. If you go to a number of warehouses in Industrial Area, they are not just warehouses. We have semi knocked down kits where we are assembling and testing our digital meters. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for Kenya Power can confirm that. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, as we roll out our capacity, I can assure the House that there will be opportunities in these areas of technology for students of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVETs) to even manufacture the more detailed components, as opposed to just assembling.

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Hon. Members, we are already on it. There is a policy framework in Kenya Power that meters and transformers ought to be local. There is no room for competition against a local manufacturer today. We are working on that and I can confirm that it would be an exercise in futility if our TVETs are churning out our youths and we are importing some of these things that can be locally manufactured or assembled in the country. I thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir.

Thank you, Waziri.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, let me touch on the Independent Power Producers (IPPs), which are on the least cost power development for delivery of our power in 2026. Sen. Wamatinga chairs the Committee on Energy and we will invite him in the next one or two weeks in a session where we are planning to sit down with all the IPPs to confirm whether they can sign on the cost of delivery unit cost per kilowatt, that is acceptable to us and the date of commissioning or Commercial Operation Date (COD) of 2026. This is because the way we run the least cost power development plan is that we match demand with supply. We do not generate what we do not need. It is a chicken-and- egg question. Do you develop power when there is no demand or do you generate demand and then you develop power? In this case, the industry may not be willing to wait for you to spend three years to build a power plant, if they are ready to invest. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, sometimes, it can impede developing industries. In a short while, we will be calling all the IPPs who have been scheduled to deliver in 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2027. That is the tariff period that has been proved by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) in the current tariffs that are levied by Kenya Power, to confirm that they will all fulfill their CODs. If they cannot meet their CODs, there are other 26 or 27 generators outside, who are willing to come in and support us to ensure that the demand is not suppressed because we are not able to supply the energy or the power in good time. I thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir.

Thank you, Waziri . Sen. Mandago.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Kindly allow me to take the Cabinet Secretary back on the matter of the blackout. What was the reason for the blackout in the better part of Monday in Nairobi, to the extent that the Nairobi Funeral Home and the Mbagathi Hospital did not have power? Also, what are the plans to ensure that Level 4 and Level 5 health facilities, where the Government intends to place equipment to support the rollout of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC), have three-phase power? A case example is in West Pokot Level 5 Hospital, which does not have three-phase power and it has equipment that has been in store for the last seven years without being utilised for lack of power. I thank you.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, today is Wednesday. Monday was the day when some of us did not get home because everywhere was flooded because of the heavy rains. We had a

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circuit breaker that went off in our Nairobi West sub-station, which was restored quickly and power resumed. There was flooding that even blocked the Nairobi Expressway, but as I said before, we are paying attention to ensure that we reduce or eradicate the blackouts, which are caused by avoidable events. On public institutions that are not on power or on three-phase, we have made a commitment that there is absolutely no reason we have 77 per cent access on power. That means power is within reach, yet public institutions, high schools and primary schools, dispensaries and hospitals are not on power. Therefore, what we have done in the budget that we are currently rolling out - and working with Members of Parliament, and a number of you have come with your area MPs to my office as a county group - is to prioritize all the public institutions and ensure they are on power. Where there is need for three-phase within access in terms of the grid, we need to provide that power. Primary schools are centres of habitation. Schools are not in isolated areas. Therefore, when we provide a transformer to serve a school, the communities around the schools are serviced through maximization. If we do the adjacent school, the pockets that are out of 600 metres because of resistance of the lines and the fact that we do not want to have too much power loses due to long cables, can then be batched with transformers and provide 100 per cent connectivity to the country. We are working hard to see whether through the funding coming through Parliament and our development partners, we can accelerate connectivity in Kenya and come close to 100 per cent by the year 2030, the same year we are saying we need to be 100 per cent renewable. If you come to my office today, you will find out that some of those programmes you desire and are pushing the Cabinet Secretary to do, are already on our programmes because it is the job you have given us to do. Sen. Mandago, we are working to ensure that all public institutions and not just that one hospital in West Pokot are on power. How do you preserve medicine like insulin in a hospital if there is no power? Before we go to our villages, there is no reason any public institution today in Kenya is not on power to support the livelihoods of the people around that region. We are committed and are working on that. Thank you.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I just want to ask one question concerning my County, Siaya. We have a rice plant between Busia and Siaya, but the plant is within Siaya County. This is a new plant. It has been constructed and completed and the farmers have just harvested a lot of rice. The rice paddy is dry and there are thousands of bags. I went there and witnessed the desperation of farmers. The mill cannot be opened, yet it is complete. The farmers now risk losing that crop or they take it to Uganda for milling, which is very expensive. The reason the plant cannot be commissioned is that the power is there, but needs to be upgraded to three-phase. I am pleading with the Cabinet Secretary to take some action to make sure this plant is upgraded from Phase 1 to Phase 3, so that the farmers can benefit.

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Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there is also the industrial park adjacent to Siaya Town, which was commissioned by the Cabinet Secretary, Hon. Kuria, some few months ago. It is also completely dysfunctional because there is need to upgrade power from phase one to phase three. So, these are the two big projects in Siaya and the only ones. I hope that the Cabinet Secretary is going to take note and take some action to ensure that these projects start functioning. Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir.

Thank you, Senator.

, we are going to take two more questions because of time, then maybe you can answer all three and we see if we can cover more ground. Sen. Samson Cherarkey, followed by Sen. Nderitu John Kinyua.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I want to thank Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum Mheshimiwa Chirchir, for always working in silence and doing wonders. He is one of the Cabinet Secretaries who normally works in silence, but he is very effective and efficient. Mine is just a brief question. Waziri, could the faulty transformers be causing regular power outages? Over the weekend, I was in Kapcherop Township. In that township, they can go up to two days without electricity. Closely related to that, when you go to a place called Kabwareng and Terik Ward, if some of your officers from Kenya Power get any Kenyan who is irregularly connected to power, they disconnect, remove meter boxes and the power posts, instead of regularizing as was directed by the President. This is also happening in Aldai, Nandi County. What are you doing to arrest such a situation?

we wish you well as you continue to do wonders in the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. From the onset, I want to thank the Cabinet Secretary and the Permanent Secretary for the good job they are doing. I am aware that transformers are of different capacities. Knowing that the Cabinet Secretary is an expert in the area of technology, I want to know whether in his office he has a dashboard and he can tell how many transformers we have in Laikipia, their capacity, and how many people are supplied by those transformers, so that we can have 100 per cent coverage of the people of Laikipia by power. I am saying that because if you go to some areas, you will find there are transformers, but they are only supplying two people and in other areas, you find a transformer that is overloaded.

Cabinet Secretary, you can answer. Please, keep the answers short, so that we can take a few more questions before 1 O'clock.

Thank You, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Sen. (Dr.) Oburu, the answer is ‘yes.’ We are going to pay attention to the rice scheme in the county towards Busia. Food security is paramount. I think that is the very reason when the country was facing the Dollar liquidity challenge because of the

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tightened Monetary Policy FedEx running the United States of America (USA), interest investment in the USA at almost 5.5 per cent, we did not have Dollars. It is unfortunate that we have to use our Dollars to import food, things we can easily grow. I have just consulted with Kenya Power about the design for the scheme to support that rice scheme. It is more of upgrading to three-phase. The same question goes to the industrial park. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is here with me. We are going to follow up and make sure that because we are not building a new network, even if the harvest is now, we can support the people in that rice scheme within the season because upgrading is not a matter of months. It can be done in a few days. So, we will look at the funding aspect to be able to do that upgrade. The only challenge that we face is that sometimes we handle Kenya Power as a social company. We have 49.9 per cent investment listed in the stock market; the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) and, therefore, when Kenya Power goes to the ground and gives an invoice or a bill for a transformer, if we can support them with payments, they should be able to connect immediately. However, in terms of extending the network to the area, that is our responsibility because it is commercial. They will get revenue by pulling the network to where the business is, so that they can sell more power. So,

, Sen. (Dr.) Oburu, we will follow up on that. I am here with Dr. Siror, and possibly we will even give you an individual call to make sure that, that has been done. Sen. Cherarkey, really, this transformer challenge is a big challenge for us and we need a lot of support. During the days when there were no metres, schemes had not been built by REREC. There was no metre because of the challenge of the legal issues of meter procurements, which the country faces sometimes. Sometimes clients were connected irregularly to consume power without a meter. I am sure you are aware that sometimes you have tried to connect metres and our officers have not been allowed to go in to connect metres because if you can consume it free, why do you want to allow somebody to come and put in a metre? So, sometimes it forces us to disconnect the transformer, to encourage them to allow us to go in and address it because, otherwise, we close down Kenya Power if they have to pay the generators, and yet they have not collected the revenue. Therefore, that is one challenge we have had and it is more prevalent in some counties, but I do not want to name which ones. We even have situations where illegal networks have been built, and they pose risks. Sometimes, poles that you find have fallen out in a particular area, it is not a network of Kenya Power, and that is why you see us coming and cutting down a pole. You would ask yourself, is Kenya Power out of their mind to be pulling down a pole? Some of those poles are not ours and it presents a security challenge to the people, when people have gone out of their way to put in a small network connected to a transformer that is being overloaded. It is an irregular network; it is an illegitimate legal network and, therefore, overloaded transformers cause a problem for legitimate customers who are properly connected. Therefore, we appeal for the political leadership to work with us in supporting Kenya Power to also get revenue, so that we can extend the network to some of the areas like the rice field that Sen. (Dr.) Oburu has talked to.

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However, we will follow it up. We have heard Kapcherop, Kapwareng, and Keurig. We will follow up and pay attention to those areas you mentioned, and if there are others that you want us to follow up on, we will be happy to do that. Concerning Mheshimiwa Sen. Kinyua, we have a dashboard, but you can imagine it was in the Cabinet Secretary's office; the dashboard for Kenya Power, the dashboard for KenGen, and others. We have serious dashboards and I would like to encourage hon. Wamatangi to invite some of the hon. Members to come to our National Control Center. We have a dashboard and see the whole country in one room. So, we follow up on what is happening all the time, and when we see a bit of an overload, we can pull down to ensure that the network does not go down because of an overload; managing that reactive situation where there is an overload. Then why do we have transformers that are connected to one person? The point is, yes, we have a transformer for 25kVA or 50kVA, and when customers apply for power, we do provide depending on the funding scheme a transformer, not necessarily which would serve one person, but a transformer that can serve that local community and do maximisation. We currently are doing a very heavy maximisation programme with some funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union (EU), and the Africa Development Bank (AFD) and we have another AFD 3. The first one is Kshs22 billion. We have another Kshs15billion of AFD 3, which is currently being rolled out and a lot of them are on maximization. So, where you see one, two or 10 persons being connected, then that transformer can service 70, 80 or 100 persons. We have done surveys and some of the plants have been finished. We are working very closely with the Members of Parliament (MP) to maximize a lot of this money that I have just spoken to, which is going to maximization. Therefore, there will be more utilization of that asset that currently is not working because it is having a few people, when it should be serving a larger number or maximized to that extent. The last mile is becoming easier in the highly populated areas because we are just doing maximization. Of course, the last mile is more difficult, especially where we have reached today, such as the areas where the landmass is huge, like Wajir, Isiolo and Marsabit Counties. However, we are committed on the last mile and maximization. In fact, Sen. Kinyua should come to my office for a cup of tea and we can look at how Laikipia County is coming up. I thank you so much.

Thank you. Waziri, I think we can squeeze two more questions, one from Sen. Mariam Omar and--- I wanted to give the ladies a chance. Sen. Orwoba, I thought you had requested? We shall give her also. Let us be fair to the ladies and proceed to ask the questions very quickly.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for giving me this opportunity in kind. I do not know if this question was asked by my colleague from northern Kenya, but I want to hear from the Cabinet Secretary. During the El Nino rains, the road which connects to Mandera County was washed away. Since then, Mandera

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County has been in a blackout for almost a month because they cannot ferry fuel from here to Mandera. Why are we still we using generators? Secondly, why are we not benefiting from the national grid? I thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Cabinet Secretary, we have seen many deaths happening with the Kenya Power Company (KPC) staff members who are on site. We have also seen so many photos, which are always circulated. Is there an investigation that has been launched as to why they are suddenly so many deaths? What kind of compensation is given to those kinds of employees? I thank you.

Thank you. I will use Standing Order No.342(8) to extend because the Cabinet Secretary seems to be very popular and everyone wants to ask questions. We shall extend our time to by another 15 minutes, so that we can get all the members to ask. Proceed to answer.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, and Members, we really empathize with the situation that occurred in Mandera County during the El Nino, because there was a breakdown of communication and lack of access. The fuel that would normally hold there for 30 days ran down to five days, zero days and eventually complete outage. That was a situation that taught us a lesson, that in the more difficult areas, we need to hold more fuel for the diesel generators. More importantly, you would have noticed that on the road, there were fuel tankers trying to access and salvage the situation. However, the road network and the whole communication breakdown was a challenge. The Kenya Power Company is working with Ethiopia and we have an arrangement. Like in most of the border towns if there is a grid, from the Ethiopia or Kenya or Uganda, they service us and vice versa. We are working with Ethiopia because there is a point there not very far up there from Mandera, where we can get the grid from Mandera town. Rather than build the grid from Wajir to Mandera or from Marsabit across to Mandera, we can get the service. In the last State Visit by the Prime Minister for Ethiopia, we discussed getting the service from Ethiopia and being built on the Kenyan side. Kenya Power is working closely with Ethiopia to actualise that and put Mandera on the grid. If we can put Marsabit on the grid at the end of Kenya towards Loyangalani, then you can see every part of the country connected to the grid, even the more difficult areas. We will pay attention to this. Ethiopians were even talking about joint power generation through some of the big rivers that go out of Kenya to Ethiopia, to forestall that challenge. However, the immediate solution is to provide cross-border connectivity for customer connections rather than buying bulk power. We currently do that with Uganda

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around the border and in Namanga. We supply power, or the neighboring countries supply it in most of the borders. More importantly, if we cannot do the grid because it is expensive, you can imagine the hybrid system, which has both solar and battery energy. We will get the solar energy during the day, store it in the battery, and use it at night. When the generators are there and there is no fuel, we would mitigate that challenge, not to be at the level of desperation we saw over that time. With respect to Sen. Orwoba on the question of the deaths, unfortunately, accidents happen. Sometimes, some accidents are highlighted more than others. Recently, we have had two deaths, one in Trans Nzoia and another in Thika, of people who were working on power lines. We try to follow the best safety practices because of the challenges of working on high-voltage lines. You can see a situation where we announce that we are doing maintenance in an area and switch off power in the whole area. Even if an emergency happens, you do not just switch on the power because people could be on the poles, and you could hurt them. I asked the Kenya Power Chief Executive Officer (CEO) quietly, when you asked what we are doing about it. We pay more attention to health safety and environmental issues as we work in high-risk areas, to ensure we do not hurt our staff. When such incidences happen, there are good insurance covers. However, insurance does not bring back life. We need to pay attention to safety and ensure that our staff are safe wherever they work, however dangerous.

Thank you, Hon. Cabinet Secretary. Let us take the final four questions in this order; Sen. (Dr.) Murango, Sen. Seki, Sen. Murgor and we finish with Sen. Chute. Be brief.

Asante, Bw. Spika wa Muda. Nashukuru Waziri pamoja na Katibu wa Kudumu, Mhe. Alex Wachira, kwa kazi nzuri ambayo wanafanya. Tunaona yanayofanyika mashinani bila kelele. Ningependa kumkumbusha kuwa kuna Kauli niliyoagiza awali kuhusu stima ambayo ilikuwa inawekwa Gichugu mahali panaitwa Gitemani, kwani imekaa kwa muda mrefu bila kuwekwa. Kuna wananchi kama 700 ambao watafaidika. Mipaka imewekwa na ningeomba waziri aangalie suala hili, ili litekelezwe haraka na kusaidia wakaazi hawa. Mwisho ni kuhimiza kuhusu mikakati ya kuweka nguvu zinazotumia solar katika sehemu ukulima unafanyika kama Tana River. Wakulima wanatumia nguvu za stima ili kunyunyuzia mimea maji. Hii inaweza kupunguza gharama kwa wakulima, ili wapate pesa mfukoni kama vile Serikali hii ilivyopanga.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you understand that Kajiado County has quite a number of national grid lines like Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO), Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), Geothermal Development Company (GDC), Kipeto Energy, which has quite a number of institutions that are holding the national grid. I want to request that you tell this House the plans that the Ministry has for Kajiado County, bearing in mind that we have less than 20 to 25 per cent of the connectivity in Kajiado County, in almost four sub-counties; Kajiado South, Kajiado

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Central, Kajiado Western and Kajiado East. It is good that you tell us the plans that you have for that county. We are the lowest in the connectivity in the entire country, yet we have a number of national gridlines that are going through Kajiado County. I thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. Let me thank the Cabinet Secretary for the good work he is doing to spread power across the nation. My question concerns West Pokot, which is one of the counties that generate power that contributes to the lighting of the whole nation. However, the unfortunate thing is that during the time of the governments of President Moi and Kibaki, many wards, schools and many places were left behind and not lit, even though power is generated from West Pokot. What plans are there to light up West Pokot, bearing in mind that it is one of the counties that is generating power that is lighting Kenya? Up to now, even areas near Turkwel are not lit.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, there was a question I had asked earlier about KenGen, going into Loiyangalani. If the Cabinet Secretary can remember, I wanted that answer, if not, then I can explain the question.

Cabinet Secretary, you can proceed to answer.

Sen. (Dr.) Murango, there is the Gichugu power solar pumping for agriculture to support food security. I think we have some very interesting programmes because of a lot of support on the last mile. I was wondering if I risk talking to numbers because I have them on my computer, we might spend the better part of the day to an extent where we have good funding for last mile. In particular, you will recall when we did a budget policy statement through Parliament, and they put in some Kshs14 billion. However, apart from the Government of Kenya funding, we have got very good funding from the development partners. I will need to check what is obtaining for Gichugu and the entire Kirinyaga County. It is right there. Nonetheless, for Kajiado, Sen. Seki, we have got good money. We just need to sit down. We have got some Kshs703 million for last mile. In West Pokot, I have checked we have got Kshs1.24 billion for that county with programmes designed. We have been spending time with the Members of Parliament to see how to roll out those networks. Where designs have been done and finished, you will see a lot of work in the last mile programme to really give power to our people. We have very specific programmess under the European Union (EU), European Investment Bank (EIB) and AFD. AFD-3 has so much funding. What you are giving us through Exchequer release is a lot of funding. I mentioned the retirement of a Polish Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) funding. There is another Kshs200 million that we are pitching to bring in for last mile programme. We will see an increase in connectivity and--- Since they are very specific to every county, we could seek to spend more time together, as we do with the Members of the National Assembly, to see some of your programmes and how they are going to impact, on priority basis, in the various areas where you provide leadership today.

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I am answering that generally because if we go to the numbers and programmes in every county, it requires we do a 7.00 a.m. meeting with the county leadership, particularly the Members of Parliament (MPs). We can go county by county to look at their programmess. We can bring in the CEO for Kenya Power Company and Dr. Rose Mkalama from REREC and their technical staff. You can define your priorities, so that we can work together to see how we can provide power. Unlike roads, power is not very expensive, yet it impacts on the lives of people very heavily because it goes to the home. From a health perspective to economic transformation of what power can do and the kind of support that we currently have, I encourage Members of the Senate to visit us, so that we can see these programmes and lay out the priorities together. With respect to KenGen, Sen. Chute, can you help us to understand why you want it to come to Loiyangalani, so that I can contextualize? I possibly did not understand the question properly.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, he did not get the question. The question was, KenGen are starting a wind project in Lake Turkana. They have already started public participation. I do not know if the Cabinet Secretary is aware. If he is not, then I am surprised.

Your question is if the Cabinet Secretary is aware of the public participation being done in Turkana?

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will defer that question. I will visit his office to explain better because of time. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Waziri, I do not know if you want to mention anything on that.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I will be happy to have a cup of tea with Sen. Chute in my office to look at that KenGen programme. I know KenGen is looking at wind generation out of that county. We need to pay attention to exactly what is happening on the ground. There are a number of other companies, private Independent Power Producers (IPPs), who are looking at those wind concessions in Bobisa down--- There is a lot of wind resource in your county. Let us spend time together, so that I can understand, to an extent, that we come to the ground to do public participation, to ensure that we carry the leadership along. I beg the House to allow me to defer that answer and possibly spend more time with Sen. Chute.

Thank you, Waziri . I take this opportunity to thank you for coming, for your patience and the good and elaborate answers. We wish you all the best in your endeavour to help light up this country and reduce power outages.

, you are free to take your leave. Thank you very much.

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The Questions that have not been asked to the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs and Cabinet Secretary for Gender, Culture, the Arts and Heritage shall be deferred.

Hon. Senators, having concluded the business for which I extended sitting hours, pursuant to Standing Order No.34(2)(a), the Senate stands adjourned until, today, Wednesday, 27th March, 2024, at 2.30 p.m.

The Senate rose at 1.15 p.m.

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