Senate · Afternoon Sitting

Clerk, do we have quorum? Serjeant-at-Arms, kindly ring the Quorum Bell for 10 minutes. Order, hon. Senators! Kindly take your seats. I am informed that we now have quorum. We shall proceed with the afternoon business. Clerk, proceed to call the first Order. Next Order.

[(The Quorum Bell was rung)]

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise to read a Petition to the Senate concerning the compensation benefits for police officers injured in the line of duty. “We, the undersigned citizens of the Republic of Kenya, and affected police officers serving in the National Police Service Commission (NPSC) , draw the attention of the Senate to the following-

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to lay the following Paper on the Table of the Senate, today, Wednesday, 24th July, 2024. The Office of the Controller of Budget, Annual Report and Financial Statements for the Financial Year 2022/2023.

[(Sen. Cheruiyot laid the document on the Table)]

Next Order.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I have four Statements this afternoon. The first Statement is on the employment of persons above the mandatory retirement age in Kisumu County.

Sen. Hamida, proceed.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise pursuant to Standing Order No.53 (1) to seek a Statement from the Standing Committee of National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations on the recent attacks on journalists covering the “Occupy” protests organised by Gen Z in Kenya. In the Statement, the Committee should-

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise pursuant to Standing Order No.53 (1) to seek a Statement from the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries regarding the state of Chwele Chicken Slaughterhouse in Bungoma County. In the Statement, the Committee should-

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I rise pursuant to Standing Order No.53 (1) to seek a Statement from the Standing Committee on Finance and Budget regarding the supplementary budget of over Kshs148 million approved by the County Assembly of Bungoma County for the Financial Year (FY) 2023/2024 that allocated funds towards hosting of the 2024 Madaraka Day celebrations in Bungoma County. In the Statement, the Comm…

Sen. Kavindu, your Statement has been brought back after having explained yourself. Proceed to read your Statement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I rise pursuant to Standing Order No.53 (1) to seek a Statement from the Standing Committee of National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations regarding cases of reported bodies dumped and retrieved in Kware area in Embakasi South Constituency, Nairobi County. In the Statement, the Committee should-

Next Order.

[(Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale, Sen. Wambua and the Clerk-at-the-Table consulted the Speaker)]

Hon. Senators, allow me to rearrange today’s Order Paper for the convenience of the House pursuant to Standing Order No.45 (2) . We shall move to prosecute Order No.16. After that, we will move to Order No.27. Once we are done with those two Orders and still have time, we will prosecute any other Order that will be available. Clerk, proceed to call that Order.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I beg to move- THAT, the Senate adopts the Report of the Standing Committee on Finance and Budget on the Senate nominees, on behalf of the county governments, to the position of Member of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, laid on the Table of the Senate on Tuesday, 23rd July, 2024, and further pursuant to Article 230 (2) (b) (vii) of the Constitution and Sectio…

Before coming to this conclusion, we had been confronted with a challenge in the Committee. One of the candidates was knocked off and the reason for being knocked off is not because he did not qualify. He was actually candidate number one. However, we were forced to knock him off because when due diligence was done on his testimonials, a letter came from the University of Nairobi stating that the …

Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale, you may proceed to table that letter before I give guidance on the same.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I hereby table a copy of the letter from the University of Nairobi, being a letter in reference to Abdirahman Hassan and signed by Mr. Emmanuel Mumba, Registrar of Academics, University of Nairobi. Thank you.

[(Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale laid the document on the Table)]

Sen. Mungatana, what is your intervention?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. As you consider giving us direction on this matter, I feel that an injustice has been carried out on a person who qualified and was left out because of a mistake that was caused by an institution. Logically, the institution has tried to restitute this by correcting the injustice that was visited upon that applicant, whom I do not know because the name has not been giv…

Proceed, Sen. Onyonka.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, as much as I support what Sen. Mungatana has said, the only request I wanted to make is your guidance on what Sen. (Dr.) Khalwale has

said. What does that letter say? Is the University making the apology that they made an error or was the document just produced as evidence?

Both.

Okay, then I understand.

Proceed, Sen. Wambua. What is your intervention?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. Where I sit, this is also a very serious issue. It is serious because I do understand that the Committee had already tabled its report and that the moving of the Motion was subsequent to a report. If that letter is admissible, although I have not seen the letter, then it would follow that the Committee made a decision on account of misleading information. The source o…

Mr. Speaker, Sir.

Yes, Sen. Kisang’.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I also concur with Sen. Wambua. I believe that in all our universities, including the University of Nairobi where I did my Masters, the letter can only be admissible if it is accompanied by the graduation booklet from the university. Otherwise, the letter can be done by anybody to purport that it is coming from the university. The booklet with the name of this particu…

Hon. Senators, I will give my ruling on this letter on Thursday, next week. The procedure to adopt will depend very much on the ruling that I will be delivering on Tuesday next week. Let us rest the matter at that. We now move to Order No.27.

Proceed, Sen. Abass.

(Bill deferred) Second Reading

(Bill deferred) I call upon the Clerk to call Order No. 24.

Sen. Wamatinga?

Thank you very much, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I rise to move that the Local Content Bill (Senate Bills No. 50 of 2023) be now read a Second Time. The Local Content Bill (Senate Bills No.50 of 2023) was published vide the Kenya Gazette Supplement No.224 on 25th November, 2023 and was introduced in the Senate in the way of the First Reading. Further on, the Bill was committed to the Committee of…

introduced. The Committee observed that the current wording of Clause 7, particularly Sub-Clause (b)(2), (4) and (5) were problematic. These sub-paragraphs were encroaching on the implementation functions vested in the county governments effectively taking away the county implementation responsibility. Therefore, the committee observed that the Bill lacked a clear funding model for activities in …

resources, they do benefit in a way of technology transfer, so that, in future, they can be self-sustaining. We know that oil and petroleum mining has become a curse to many African countries. For us, as a country, to avoid this curse that has befallen some of the major oil producers, be it Nigeria, Ghana and the like, we must come up with measures and a framework that ensures that the local comm…

It is also important to ensure that the local communities who are the owners of the lands, do not only get the compensation they require, but they get commensurate compensation that will ensure that their livelihood moving on to the future, is assured. This cannot happen unless we put an elaborate mechanism in place that is easy to interpret, adopt and implement. Further on, we also noted that mo…

Lokichar, you will see the local communities lined up with jerricans of water, waiting for the water trucks that undertake the water trucking to provide them with water. If that was rightly conceptualized, it could have been that a water pipeline could have been installed. As you are aware, in oil extraction, the extraction companies use these pumps to pump water into the boreholes so that they c…

standardized approach in all the counties on how the local communities will be assisted to take part in such an investment. As I conclude, it is also very important to note that there is quite a huge potential of the gas. As we seek to move into green energy, it is important to note that most of the households in Kenya use firewood, charcoal and maybe other fossil fuel-based cooking means. This h…

Sen. Abass, proceed. Sen. Abass: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. As a Member of the Standing Committee on Energy, I wish to second the Local Content Bill (Senate Bills No.50 of 2023) . The Bill seeks to provide a framework for development and adoption of local content. In the past, we used to see multinationals coming and going all over Kenya doing explorations, but the local people were not so much…

parts of my county. The Bill gives a lot of responsibility to local content, like the experts in the country and the local communities within that area. There will now be a thorough environmental impact assessment. This is to ensure that we know the kind of things they are carrying. They have big containers and nobody knows what they are carrying. They are so secretive and do everything exclusive…

parts of my county. The Bill gives a lot of responsibility to local content, like the experts in the country and the local communities within that area. There will now be a thorough environmental impact assessment. This is to ensure that we know the kind of things they are carrying. They have big containers and nobody knows what they are carrying. They are so secretive and do everything exclusive…

I thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for granting me the opportunity to contribute to the Local Content Bill (Senate Bills No.50 of 2023) . I must appreciate Sen. Wamatinga for this Bill. This is a Bill that speaks to my heart. In my earlier life, I served as a CECM in the County Government of Homa Bay from 2013 to just before the year I joined this honourable House. One of the achievements …

I thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for granting me the opportunity to contribute to the Local Content Bill (Senate Bills No.50 of 2023) . I must appreciate Sen. Wamatinga for this Bill. This is a Bill that speaks to my heart. In my earlier life, I served as a CECM in the County Government of Homa Bay from 2013 to just before the year I joined this honourable House. One of the achievements …

Sen. Beatrice Ogola, you will have a balance of 30 minutes to continue with your contribution when we resume tomorrow.