Senate · Morning Sitting

Clerk, do we have quorum? Serjeant-at-Arms, kindly ring the Quorum Bell for 10 minutes. Serjeant-at-Arms, ring the Quorum Bell again for a further 10 minutes. Hon. Senators, we do have quorum now. Clerk, you may proceed to call the first Order, please.

[(The Clerk-at-the-Table consulted the Speaker)]

[(The Quorum Bell was rung)]

[(The Quorum Bell was rung)]

Mr. Speaker, Sir, on behalf of Sen. Karen Nyamu, I beg to ask the following Question.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you have 15 minutes within which to respond and also allow supplementary questions from hon. Senators. Kindly paraphrase because we already have your substantive response.

Please, proceed. The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning (Hon. John Mbadi): Mr. Speaker, Sir, in responding to this Question, although this is an area that sometimes I am passionate about, I will not go overboard. To effectively manage the prevailing fiscal deficit in Kenya, the Government through the National Treasury has adopted a multi-pronged approach with notabl…

Sen. Chute, please proceed.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I would like to know from the Cabinet Secretary what interventions the Ministry is implementing with regards to pending bills, where you will find one pending bill that has been passed by the county assembly and then the governor has his own list, this comes to Controller of Budget (CoB) and the governor's list will be paid when the one that has been passed by the coun…

Hon. CS, please proceed. The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning : Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. The two questions are linked together, and are very related, where you find that the requisition is made through the normal system, through the CoB and yet the payment is paid to another contractor or to pay another bill. This is a problem that is very pronounced in counti…

[(Hon. John Mbadi)]

approved is what is actually paid. These cases are too much. They are reported, we live in this country and we hear about them. Nothing seems to be happening to stop this, which I call illegal diversion of funds. If the CoB has approved money to be spent in a particular manner, that is how it should be spent. It should not be spent in a different manner. At the National Treasury, we are working on…

Sen. Osotsi, please proceed.

Thank you Mr. Speaker, Sir. Let me start by congratulating the CS for the good work he is doing at the National Treasury and Economic Planning. Indeed, you are the expert that we have been talking about. I have two quick questions. One is that the CS has talked about constraints in disbursing monies to the counties. I would like to make reference to the Disbursement Schedule we passed last week t…

Go straight to the question, Hon. Osotsi.

What are these constraints that the Ministry is facing, particularly in disbursing the money under additional allocation that we passed in the Disbursement Schedule last week? Secondly---

Hon. Osotsi, under Standing Order 51 (c) (7) (b) , you are entitled to ask only one supplementary question, which you have. Hon. CS, proceed to respond. The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning : The constraints generally would be on cash flow challenges, especially where the funding is from GoK, and more particularly where we fail to meet the revenue targets by the …

[(Hon. John Mbadi)]

When we have limited resources, sometimes we look at even the balances of counties and release some funds to some counties, which have low balances. For those that still have high balances, we tell them to wait. When they spend, we give them. As we speak, we have paid all the monies to all the counties up to the end of April, but we still have the months of May and June outstanding. Of course, we …

[(Loud consultations)]

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you have one minute to make your submissions. The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning : Mr. Speaker, Sir, you could add me two minutes, so that they become three to enable me to explain this bit. Mr. Speaker, Sir, the economic shutdown led to a slowdown in the economic growth in the country and we failed to meet of our targets in terms of revenu…

[(Hon. John Mbadi)]

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, please, conclude. The Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning : I would want to urge and request this honourable House to support me, support the Government and support my Ministry, so that we do not fall to where our contemporaries have fallen. I am confident that we are not going to follow them. That is

[(Hon. John Mbadi)]

why sometimes you see some challenges, but we will outlive these challenges with your cooperation. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, Sir.

Thank you. Hon. Senators. I am afraid we may have to terminate our interrogation and interaction with the Cabinet Secretary at that. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, thank you so much. You are now free to leave. Clerk, you may usher in the Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs. Hon. Senators, this morning, we lost 30 minutes waiting for quorum; thirty minutes that we would have…

[(Loud consultations)]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I beg to ask the Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs. I have also received responses to the questions and, therefore, I will ask the questions, but will save on time because the responses are satisfactory. The Cabinet Secretary does only need to spend too much time responding.

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you may proceed to respond. You need not read your response verbatim. You may like to paraphrase in the interest of time. Proceed, Hon. Cabinet Secretary. The Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy & Maritime Affairs : Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. As indicated by the honorable Senator that we have furnished with the relevant responses, I assure the House that indeed w…

[(Hon. Hassan Ali Joho)]

Sen. Tom Ojienda, you may ask your two supplementary questions.

Mr. Speaker, I have no supplementary question to the Cabinet Secretary. I am satisfied with the response. The Speaker (Hon. Kingi) : Proceed, Sen. Wambua.

[(Sen. (Prof) Tom Ojienda consulted with Sen. Wambua)]

Sen. Ojienda, allow your colleague to ask a question, if you are satisfied. Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you may take your seat and then note all the questions because I am going to allow a number of the Senators to raise questions. Thereafter, you will respond to them at ago.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, the way Sen. Ojienda is pointing at me, I am not sure I am safe. I want protection from you.

Sen. Ojienda, I have noted you. Kindly resume your ordinary seat. Just proceed and do it quietly, please.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir, for your protection. My question flows from question (b) on illegal mining activities, Cabinet Secretary, are you aware of the illegal extraction of copper in Kitui County, especially the area around Kitui West, called Mithikwani? If he does not have the specifics about it, I am willing to take it up with him in due course.

Asante, Bw. Spika. Kwanza, ninakupongeza kwa kazi unayofanya. Tunashukuru. Kuna hatua ulichukua sehemu ya Tana River na ukasimamisha uchimbaji wa madini ya gypsum. Tulitarajia kwamba utafuatiliza, uweke mikakati ili wale wananchi wanaofaidika kwa uchumi huo wa uchimbaji wa gypsum, wawekezaji na serikali ya kaunti wapate haki yao. Baada ya hatua ile ambayo sote tuliipongeza, Serikali ya Kitaifa k…

Mr. Speaker, Sir, my question to the Cabinet Secretary relates to mining royalties. Recently, we had additional allocation of revenue and some counties were allocated royalties. I did not see any money being allocated to Narok County for additional allocation of revenue in terms of royalties, yet the county has the majority of gold mining activities in the country. Does the Ministry of National T…

Asante sana, Bw. Spika. Ningependa kumwuliza Waziri kuhusu uvuvi ambapo sehemu ya Vanga na Shimoni, wavuvi wananyanyaswa sana na maafisa wa Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) .

Sen. Boy, your supplementary question must flow from the primary question. You may want to wait until the Waziri responds to the second question that is related to fisheries.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, yesterday we had the opportunity to sit with the Governor for Kwale at the County Public Accounts Committee (CPAC) . The question I wanted has been asked by Sen. Olekina, that, in fact, the Governor for Kwale confirmed that they have never received royalties from this Government. So maybe when he answers that question, he will answer us as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. I would also wish to know from the Cabinet Secretary, in line with what Prof. Tom Ojienda mentioned on capacity building. We have a soapstone mining activity which is more traditional, but I feel like the Ministry is not giving it much attention, like the other mining that happens in other counties. I would wish to know what other special consideration is being given …

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, Sir. The Cabinet Secretary had responded to the question by Sen. (Prof.) Ojienda regarding environmental impact of miners. In his answer, he elaborated that miners are required to come up with a management plan of the environment. Could the Cabinet Secretary elucidate further in terms of how the Ministry has taken action against miners who leave their environment in a very…

Hon. Cabinet Secretary, you have three minutes to respond. The Cabinet Secretary for Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs : Mr. Speaker, Sir, if you will allow me, I would like to start with the last question by Sen. Haji. I think it is an important one. One of the reasons we have had to stop some mining operations such as the one for gypsum is because of how the mining activit…

[(Hon. Hassan Ali Joho)]

Obviously, I will be consulting and seeking your support to be able to amend the law, so that if someone pays royalty, 70 per cent goes to the national Government, 20 per cent should go to counties, and 20 per cent should go to communities and CDAC. One per cent gross should directly go to the community. So, this is a matter that requires reform in our law. I am already in discussion with the rele…

Thank you, Hon. CS. We will now move to Question No.047 by the Sen. Miraj Abdullahi. You may proceed to ask your question.

Question No.047

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I beg to ask the following the Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum the following Question.

[[The Speaker (Hon. Kingi) left the Chair] [The Temporary Speaker (Sen. Abdul Haji) in the Chair]]

Welcome, Cabinet Secretary. Please, proceed to answer. The Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum : Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, for your indulgence. I was supposed to be here first thing in the morning, but we agreed with my colleague, Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi, to swap the times because he had some other engagement elsewhere. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, before I go to the spe…

[(Hon. Opiyo Wandayi)]

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, it is not conceivable that power can flow from LTWP in Loiyangalani, all the way to Suswa in Narok by passing the entire stretch of Marsabit land. That is what we want to correct under this administration. Secondly, we will unlock an important transmission line project that runs from LTWP in Loiyangalani, all the way to Marsabit and equally from Isiolo to Marsabit. By …

on-boarded, and all the associated transformers will be commissioned in order to realize the benefits anticipated by the Government of Kenya. In addition, some parts of Marsabit County have witnessed insecurity cases, which have caused movement of people, hence leaving the already installed transformers fairly idle. The Government is engaging various stakeholders to foster peace and restore norma…

Thank you very much, Cabinet Secretary. Sen. Chute, would you prefer to ask your second question, then ask the supplementary questions thereafter? Question No.068