THIRTEENTH PARLIAMENT

Fifth Session

Wednesday, 9th September, 2026 at 9.30 a.m.

PARLIAMENT OF KENYA

The House met at the Senate Chamber, Parliament Buildings, at 9.32 a.m.

PRAYER

DETERMINATION OF QUORUM AT COMMENCEMENT OF SITTING

QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS

QUESTIONS

(MSMEs) Development and the Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport. However, last evening, we got communication from both of them that they are unable to attend today’s session. Therefore, the Questions Time automatically collapses because we do not have any Cabinet Secretary before us.

Question No.066

ECONOMIC LOSSES DURING PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS OVER PUMP PRICES

Question No.057

DETERIORATING CONDITION OF THIKA-KENOL A2 ROAD

Question No.061

STATUS OF THE MTONGWE FERRY RAMP

Question No.063

STATUS OF ROADS IN KAKAMEGA COUNTY

PROCEDURAL MOTION

ELECTION OF SENATORS TO PRESIDE OVER SITTINGS OF THE HOUSE PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 107(1) OF THE CONSTITUTION AND STANDING ORDER NO.18

MOTION

ADOPTION OF REPORT ON COOPERATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND NAIROBI CITY COUNTY GOVERNMENT

THAT, the Senate adopts the Report of the Standing Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations on the Cooperation Agreement between the National Government and the Nairobi City County Government laid on the Table of the Senate on Wednesday, 15th July, 2026.

(Sen. Abass on 5.8.2026)

I am happy that the Committee understood the objections from the people of Nairobi through their elected representative, that is, the Senator for Nairobi.

I have always argued that everything that we call development has to be undertaken in the context of the Constitution. You cannot purport to be doing what we call development whilst violating the Constitution.

From the onset, I want to say that I agree with the recommendations of the Committee that that agreement be suspended temporarily, so that the national Government and the Nairobi City County Government comply with the law. I want to make it clear here because there are people who accuse us of refusing development. I was elected in this city to push for as much development as I could for the people of Nairobi. As a lawyer, I am painfully aware of the responsibilities that rest on the national Government and those that rest on the Nairobi City County Government.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, we took objection on this for various reasons. As the Committee noted in its Report, we all heard about this cooperation agreement in the media. That already presents a problem because as a leader in this city, I expected that at the very minimum, there would be consultation, not just with my office, but also with the Members of the County Assembly (MCAs) who confirmed to me that they also heard it in the news. If you hear something in the news, there is already a violation of the Constitution because such a decision, being subject to the Constitution, should have been subjected to public participation.

I am a big fan of the Urban Areas and Cities Act, and this is the law that was cited, specifically Section 6, as the basis for this cooperation agreement between Nairobi City County and the national Government. The Urban Areas and Cities Act recognizes the unique nature and needs of the City of Nairobi because it is a city of power, it hosts diplomatic missions and, of course, all these other things, including Government institutions such as Parliament and their unique needs.

I have given the example, for instance, of just how much we pay as a city in electricity bills for street lighting, something that might not necessarily be the same in a county such as Homa Bay, where they have only one dual carriageway that they post on all social media, to show that there is development in Homa Bay. That carriageway has some street lighting. However, you cannot compare the electricity street lighting bill in Homa Bay to that of Nairobi.

You are all residents of Nairobi, you live here, so you know that every time we have a blackout or non-functional street lighting, there is also the security risk that comes with it. We objected, after learning about this cooperation agreement, on the basis of four principles. Constitutionalism, which is something that I preach day and night, rule of law and participatory democracy.

We know that the Constitution contemplates cooperation between the two levels of Government and that, in fact, there is a legitimate policy rationale for some of these agreements. Just on the basis of violation of the Constitution, our argument was that the national Government and the County Government of Nairobi must go back and comply with the law. We are not rejecting money that can come and help us do our drainage and other things, especially in light of the warnings that we are receiving that we are going to experience severe El Nino weather effects.

If you look at Clause 6 (2) of that agreement, in fact, it anticipated that after the signing of the agreement, the people of Nairobi would be given the opportunity to propose amendments, yet you cannot do that. Public participation and the views of the people must come before you sign the agreement.

It cannot be that you sign something, then you tell us that you will have opportunity to amend it. That issue of limiting the power of the people to amendments is also a problem that I have, because, as I said when I issued my communication regarding this proposed agreement, the people in their sovereign power can decide to set aside the entire agreement. So, you cannot limit the power of the people to only amendments.

Secondly, there had been established or proposed to be established a steering committee of 12 members. If you look at the composition of that steering committee, it was heavy with the national Government appointees. Out of the 12 members, two-thirds were proposed to be national Government appointees.

Thirdly, it is public knowledge that national Government institutions owe Nairobi City County Government money. It is very possible for the national Government to pay the Nairobi City County Government the monies that are owed to the people of Nairobi and tell them to run these programmes. It is the responsibility of us, as a Senate, to oversight that particular work.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I am happy with the recommendations of the Committee and I am hoping that this House will support those recommendations, that we temporarily suspend that agreement until the law is complied with. However, I am a worried man. I have no faith whatsoever that the national Government and the Nairobi City County Government will actually respect the decisions of this Senate, the decisions that have been proposed by our Committee and the decisions that have been proposed by the House.

I know for a fact, because I attended the sittings of this Committee, that the Nairobi City County Governor was present. I am sure he knows the recommendations that have been made by the Senate. I am sure he knows that he has to comply with the law.

I am sure he knows that he is bound by our constitutional values in the preamble of our Constitution and in Article 10. I am worried because there is an increasing level of impunity in this country and leadership that is grounded on what I call ‘the mambo matatu philosophy.’ We have a situation where nobody cares for the rule of law.

Nobody cares for constitutionalism. A person in authority can just wake up today and order the closure of an investment worth billions of shillings that has been in existence for over 100 years, and tell the investors to pack and go. I am sure that investors across the world watching the happenings in Nairobi and in Kenya will be very concerned about whether this country is where you can put your money. There is no way it can work.

It has extended to small businesses, including hawkers, that a person in authority can just wake up today and say, ‘pack and go.’ What is most interesting is that these roadside declarations are made by a person in authority and in two or three days, he has to change his mind and backtrack.

For instance, I saw that the Cabinet Secretary for Mining, Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs telling us that in the Magadi Soda case, for instance, after the Head of State pronounced himself saying, pack and go, he is now setting up some steering committee to review the issues surrounding Magadi Soda. Even in the case of the small hawkers here in Nairobi that come from the region, specifically people from Burundi, we are now being told that after the Head of State said pack and go, they are being given 90 days to review their status. What is most heartbreaking is that those of us who call for following the law and constitutionalism, before you issue an instruction from your high office or a command from your high seat, consider the law.

Those of us who are insisting on constitutionalism and the rule of law are being told we are the ones without “akili”. How is this possible that we are the ones without “akili,” yet we can see that from your position of leadership, your words have consequences? You have to consider those consequences before you speak and you have to go through legal processes before you issue edicts.

Sometimes I wonder if the person in the office of the President sleeps and believes or dreams that he is Moi. We are not in that Moi era. We saw it become a pattern, because even with Mumias Sugar, this was the first time that we had this issue of mambo ni matatu.

I want the country to know that when we insist on constitutional values and the rule of law, we know what we are talking about. It has everyday consequences for the lives of ordinary people. Since the Senate is a constitutional body, once we have made directives that you need to comply with the law and our Constitution, it is my hope that the national Government and the County Government of Nairobi will comply with the law. Otherwise, we risk running a country where institutions such as ourselves exist in vain, where we are able to make recommendations or even make edicts constitutionally, but they will not find implementation with the powers that be.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are grateful as a people of Nairobi. We know that there are certain legitimate policy rationales for support from the national Government for projects in Nairobi because of our unique nature, as identified under Section 6 of the Urban Areas and Cities Act, but our insistence on compliance with the law is not idle. We want to build a society that is not a jungle where the rule of law applies. This includes where you could have a case before the courts against Government. In order for you to play ball, you will hear that an investor has been abducted, as happened to the directors of Mumias Sugar at the height of a conflict with the national Government.

No investor puts money in such a country and our people have to understand there is a direct correlation between the rule of law and employment opportunities and investment. If you have retired and put some money aside, how will you be confident that if you open a salon here in Nairobi, you will be able to run it without being told “funga hiyo kitu today” by somebody in authority? So, our people have to understand that the rule of law is sacrosanct and without it, nothing else will work in our country.

I thank the Committee and the House for supporting the recommendations of the Committee. Our prayer, hope and expectation is that everybody will comply with decisions of lawful constitutional bodies such as the Senate.

Thank you, Hon. Speaker.

MOTION

ADOPTION OF REPORT ON SESSIONAL PAPER NO. 1 OF 2025 ON THE FOREIGN POLICY OF THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA

THAT, the Senate adopts the report of the Standing Committee on National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations on Sessional Paper No. 1 of 2025 on the foreign policy of the Republic of Kenya, laid on the table of the Senate on Tuesday, 31st March, 2026.

MOTION

ADOPTION OF REPORT ON STAKEHOLDER FORUM HELD IN BUNGOMA COUNTY ON CHALLENGES FACING THE SUGAR SECTOR

THAT, the Senate adopts the Report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries on Stakeholder Forum on the challenges facing the sugar sector held at Mabanga Agricultural Training College in Bungoma County on 26th May, 2026, laid on the Table of the Senate, on Wednesday, 5th August, 2026.

Next Order.

MOTION

MAINSTREAMING A FRAMEWORK FOR CLEAN COOKING

v) County Governments engage the private sector actors, and community organizations to expand clean cooking access, create local jobs, and reduce pressure on forest resources.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, today, I was privileged to attend the breakfast meeting on clean cooking and some of my colleagues came to support me. Those who were present will appreciate that I do need to speak much on it. However, I will point out that many deaths occur every year due to carbon monoxide from firewood and the rest.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, you can imagine the number of trees that are cut down and how long it takes to grow a tree. So, how many more or less deforestation is done by just losing this in terms of clean cooking? The people who suffer most are the women and children. In my opinion, we need to create more awareness on this issue.

My Motion has taken quite some time, but then, I think today was really a good opportunity for Members, my distinguished colleagues, to be enlightened on this matter. We had directors and other partners from United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Climate Parliament just to emphasise on this. I feel strongly that we really need to create awareness on this issue of clean cooking. You can imagine how many lives we lose. As much as we look at accidents and other areas, I think what we have not focused on is the deforestation and the carbon monoxide that is emitted whenever you are using charcoal and firewood.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, this is an opportunity today for me to leave my colleagues with that because much has been said on this issue and the solutions actually are quite reasonable on such.

We looked at South Africa and other countries on access rate of the loss, as well as the widespread electricity access to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and distribution. I wonder why we do not have it in Kenya. For example, in South Africa, we have 85 to 90 per cent that have access to LPG distribution. Botswana has 70 to 75 per cent strong LPG penetration and rural electrification. Namibia has 65 to 70 per cent on electrification, donor-supported LPG. We have Eswatini, 60 to 65 per cent. However, in Kenya, it is quite disheartening. Can you imagine we only have 34.4 per cent and most of them are pilot projects and donor support, and we are unable to support our own and only have to depend on donor support.

In Ghana, the rates also go down, but then, I cannot imagine that in a country like Kenya, we are still holding on to 34.4 per cent, yet countries like Botswana and Namibia are at 70 and 65 per cent. Kenya is a leader in this African region at 65.6 per cent, which is a good, more or less. We can pat ourselves on the back by saying that, at least, among the East Africa, we are really trying to get where we want to get.

We also have issues on the county access and regional equity. I have just been told that during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), our President is actually going to discuss on the clean cooking. However, I have decided to champion this, not because of anything, but due to the lives that are lost from this, yet there is no awareness.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, when you look at the institution kitchen transition, the scaling impact in public schools on massive biomass use, we now need to dwell on education sector consumption, looking at the 10 million trees that go down annually for schools feeding programmes.

We also need to look at the national mandates that require public institutions to adopt clean cooking energy options. The decisive savings do transition, as a single school avoids 188 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, and drastically reduces feeding programme budgets. Looking at the county leadership, Senators can oversee compliance in vocational and other institutions to catalyse regional market demands.

With regard to the empowering of women and local markets, there is so much empowering going on, and I think we really need to again engage on empowering women on such, like how the biomass collection imposes hours of unpaid care labour on rural women and girls, limiting their education and economic potential.

Remember how much time our grandmothers used to take in the kitchen using firewood. Can you compare firewood with LPG, in reference to how much time it takes? It really takes a lot of time from the time you light the firewood and cook over one by one. On the contrary, clean cooking frees up productive labour hours while generating thousands of green works in cookstove and also manufacturing the biothermal supply chains, as well as the last mile distribution, looking also at transforming clean energy from a social welfare issue on an active driver of county Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, we are also talking about the grid and e-cooking synergies. The grid maximises renewable grid capacity. Looking at the national target, we have the electric cooking strategy that targets 10 households, e-cooking adoption by 2030. Utilising surplus power is also one of them. Utility viability also does electric pressure cookers (EPC), boosts domestic power demand and utility. In regard to county benefits, it unlocks value from state-funded rural electrification assets.

In fact, sometimes I wonder, we, in town, end up enjoying using the gas, as women and even men do cook. However, I also wonder, how do we also enjoy when we go to the rural and see our aunties, grandmothers and parents using the firewood in this century? I feel strongly that we, as women, first, need to support and empower other women because some of us went through the same. We went through using charcoal and also firewood. We experimented that. However, the number of lives that we lose is unheard of. I remember during my childhood, any time that I used charcoal, I developed asthma. So, you can imagine others who are unable to do that. How do we come in to empower them?

Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to leave this opportunity to my dear colleagues, distinguished Senators, just to have their feedback on this, because, in my view, after they have been enlightened and even before, this clean cooking is dear to everyone else, just to see that we do not lose more lives, and also look at the affordability and financial gaps, social culture and behavioural barriers and policy institutional gaps on such issues.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, for that reason, I would like to move and request Sen. Tabitha Mutinda to second.

I rise to support this Motion. I just came from a very great, delicious breakfast. I do not know how you missed that this morning. It was not just done by the Parliament of Kenya; it was done by The Tribe. I want to appreciate them. We had great engagements; a platform that was organised by none other than Sen. Hamida Kibwana herself.

Mr. Speaker, Sir, let me start by making these remarks: Clean cooking is not simply about changing the fuel we use. It is about protecting our mothers and children, saving household incomes, protecting our forests, creating job opportunities and giving every Kenyan family the right to cook safely with dignity. That is what Sen. Hamida Kibwana is championing. In her Motion, she put a few points here and there.

First is clean cooking and matters of health. This morning, I heard my good brother and friend, Sen. Moses Kajwang’, the Senator of Homa Bay. He shared a personal story about his lovely mother on the issue of cataracts. That was as a result of smoke. When I look at the report from the Ministry of Health on what is causing our mothers to have eye infections, cataract issues, and eye conditions where surgeries are required, it is mostly due to the smoke from traditional cooking. So, this discussion is beyond policy issues; it cuts across all sectors. Matters of health are very crucial.

This Motion also talks about the protection of women and children. Traditionally, as women, we have been expected to be the ones managing our households. We are the ones who are supposed to go and fetch firewood. So, when we have this discussion today, led by a woman leader, none other than Sen. Hamida Kibwana, it is because we are addressing matters that, as women, we go through. It is fighting for the rights of women and the girl-child.

This issue of clean cooking further reduces our deforestation. We have to protect nature. We have to protect our environment. This morning, I was seated with the Senator for Makueni, enjoying the great breakfast. He shared with me that one day they went for some oversight in one of the primary schools. Every day, a school in this county has to cut down trunks of trees so as to get firewood. The discussion of clean cooking is timely. This is the time that we should understand that this issue cuts across. I have already talked about four issues; health, women, the girl-child and deforestation.

As I proceed, there is the issue of affordability. Firewood or these traditional cooking methods are extremely expensive. By the way, today, it is very cheap when we use solar, unlike the old methods. This is a discussion that we encourage in the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, to also provide and encourage many other investors to have opportunities to provide appliances that are affordable in this country. We all know that this will save time.

Today, we were challenged; the speakers challenged the men. I also want to extend the same challenge and ask our men. Would you find time and create a culture of cooking in your homesteads? Why would it be wrong? Why would you feel less of a man if you decide that, today, you are going to prepare a meal for your family? This will make this conversation move from a women's conversation to household conversations. When the women get sick, you are mandated, mostly as a man, to take the responsibility. True or false? Of course, it is true.

Also, it is a high time that we look at this clean cooking as an opportunity for our young people to get jobs. This is a space that will definitely create more job opportunities

for the young generation; a generation that is also very innovative. We are in an AI space and technology has changed. That is as far as the tech is concerned. When we look back on matters of clean cooking, what are the alternatives? These are the alternatives that then give different job opportunities to our people, with AI being in place.

Very soon, in a few years to come, you will realise we might not even need our drivers; neither will you need to drive yourself. You will just need to put the technology on the car and tell the car to move from Parliament to Westlands, get these products, and bring them to your house or where you will be. Things are changing.

We might not need pilots. Yes, that is where we are going. We are having the robots to fly you from JKIA in Nairobi to Amsterdam. That is where we are. When we talk about clean cooking today, what is the alternative? This is the discussion that we are having today. But I would want to urge my colleagues, very humbly and respectfully, to support this Motion 100 per cent. When you listen to this Motion, it has nothing to do with any politics. It just focuses on job creation, health matters and deforestation.

As I conclude, clean cooking dignifies our living and improves the quality of life because it gives a modern kitchen a safer cooking space for ourselves.

Lastly, I would want to encourage the Ministry of Health, in conjunction with the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, to invest in massive awareness on matters of clean cooking. That is where we are, as a country. We might come up with all the other policies. Who are we making these policies for if we do not have a safe environment and a healthy nation? What are all these policies for? I sit in the Committee on Finance and Budget. I have had the privilege to oversight the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) funds. As we speak today, from 2022 to 2027, there has been a total of Kshs38 billion in (FLLoCA). When you go down for oversight, I mean, apart from the few water tanks that you will see, because those are tangible assets, there is nothing else to show. How much can Kshs 38 billion do? It is a lot. I want to urge and challenge governors in all 47 counties to please do better in this area. It is only one county, the great County of Vihiga that I have had the privilege to visit and oversee, and it was great. They had spent their FLLoCA funds very well.

I urge the Members of County Assemblies (MCAs) at the county level to ensure that they invest in oversight as far as the FLLoCA funds are concerned because these monies on matters climate are moving to--- Ours is to ensure they get these funds on time. They should ensure that there is impact from these funds.

With those many and few remarks, I happily and proudly second. (Question proposed) The Floor is now open for debate.

Afrika ya Kusini, Namibia, Botswana na Eswatini katika matumizi ya kawi safi kwa upishi.

Katika Kenya nzima, asilimia 70 bado wanatumia kuni katika upishi. Kaunti zinazoongoza katika matumizi ya kuni ni Wajir, Marsabit na nyinginezo za Kaskazini Mashariki. Vile vile, katika Kenya yetu asilimia 71.5 katika maeneo ya miji wanatumia kawi safi ya gesi na umeme katika upishi.

Ijapokuwa tumepiga hatua hizo, bado sehemu kubwa ya jamii yetu katika Kenya inatumia kuni na kawi zingine kama kinyesi cha wanyama. Hivyo, inawafanya wale mama zetu kuwa exposed kwa mambo mengi ambayo yanaathiri afya zao. Wengi wanakwenda mwendo mrefu kutafuta kawi hizi na huenda pia wakapigwa au kudhulimiwa kijinsia. Mbali na mwendo mrefu kuna shida kuingia misituni kutafuta kuni hizi.

Matumizi ya kuni pia huleta athari za kiafya hususan maradhi ya pumu na kifua lakini sikubaliani na Seneta Mutinda kwamba magonjwa ya utandu wa macho husababishwa na moshi. Kisayansi, utandu ni kwa sababu ya umri na matumizi ya muda mrefu ya jicho.

Ipo haja ya kupunguza ile gap ya matumizi ya kawi safi na matumizi ya kuni zingine za kitamaduni kwa sababu inasaidia pakubwa kupunguza ile gesi ya sumu ambayo inatokana katika hewa ambayo nyingi tunaitoa sisi kwa sababu ya matumizi ya mafuta ya petroli na kuchoma takataka ama kuni ambazo zinakwenda katika atmoshphere.

Vile vile, ipo haja ya kupunguza gharama za ununuzi wa hizi kawi safi za kupikia. Kwa mfano, gesi ijapokuwa ni kawi safi, wengi katika sehemu za miji hususan vitongoji duni, wameshindwa kununua meko gesi ya kupikia na kujaza gesi kila mara. Wanaona ni gharama kubwa kuliko kwenda msituni kutafuta kuni. Ipo haja ya Serikali kupunguza bei ya gesi katika nchi yetu.

Ninaona kule Mombasa kuna kiwanda kile cha Taifa Gas kinachojengwa Dongo Kundu. Kikikamilika, kitasaidia pakubwa kupunguza gharama ya gesi.

Kulikuwa na mipango ya Serikali ya kufanya sehemu ya Kenya Petroleum Refineries, Magongo, iwe ni sehemu ambayo wanaweza kuweka storage ya gesi kwa matumizi mengi. Hii gesi ikiletwa kutoka nje tuwe na ya kutosha ambayo haitaleta mabadiliko ya bei yanapotokea katika nchi inakotoka. Kwa hivyo, ningependa kupongeza Serikali kwa hiyo mikakati miwili ya kupanua uwezo wa nchi yetu ya Kenya kupokea gas nyingi ya matumizi.

Vile vile, ni masuala ya kuleta mwamko juu ya hii kawi safi ijapokuwa, kwa mfano, Mombasa, watu wanaishi katika zile nyumba ambazo ni za Kiswahili. Kwa mfano, nyumba moja inaweza kuwa na vyumba kumi ambavyo kila chumba kimepangishwa mtu tofauti. Utapata nyumba moja iko na mitungi kumi ya meko gas lakini hawakupewa mafunzo yoyote kuhusiana na iwapo kutatokea moto wanatakikana wafanye nini.

Kukitokea janga la moto kwa nyumba moja, nyumba tatu au nne zinaweza kuchomeka katika eneo lile kwa sababu ya milipuko ya mitungi ya gesi ambayo iko katika nyumba zile. Kwa hivyo, ipo haja ya kuhamasishwa kwa wananchi kuhusiana na matumizi na vile vile usalama wa vyombo kama hivi.

Kwa serikali zetu za kaunti, sisi kama Maseneta tunafanya uangalizi, yaani oversight. Mara nyingi katika hizi bajeti za kaunti 47, utapata ni chache sana ambazo ziko na asilimia fulani ya fedha zilizotengwa kuweza ku-promote au kuangalia masuala ya kawi safi ya kupikia. Kwa hivyo, ipo haja ya kamati zetu husika, kwa mfano, Kamati ya County Public Accounts Committee, Kamati ya Uhasibu ambayo inaongozwa na Sen. M. Kajwang’ ambaye yuko hapa, wakati wanaangalia hizi bajeti na akaunti za kaunti zetu, waangalie ni asilimia gani ambayo inatengwa kwa masuala ya kawi safi ambayo itasaidia pakubwa kupunguza greenhouse emissions katika ulimwengwu wetu.

Pia, kaunti zetu zitoe mwongozo kuhusiana na masuala ya kuzatiti ama ku- promote haya masuala ya upishi kwa kawi safi. Kwa mfano, wanaweza kutoa leseni maalum kwa wale ambao wanachangia kuleta kawi ama gesi ya kupikia kwa urahisi kuliko wale ambao wanatumia mambo ya zamani kama vile kuni na makaa.

Mwisho ni kwamba ni lazima zile shule ziko katika maeneo yetu ambazo mara nyingi zinatumia kuni – shule nyingi zina budget ya kuni na katika bajeti zile, huwa kuna pesa fulani ambazo zinatengwa mahususi labda kumfariji bursar ama principal, ili kuona kwamba ile tender ya kuleta kuni katika shule haikatizwi. Lazima tuyaangalie hayo kwa sababu tukibadilisha kawi kutoka kupika kutumia kuni na tuwe tunatumia gesi safi, itasaidia pakubwa kuhakikisha kwamba mazingira yetu yanalindwa. Pia, tunaweza kupeana nafasi za kazi katika masuala kama haya. Hii ni kwa sababu viwanda vya kusafisha gesi ile – sehemu za kuuzia gesi ile, zote zitasaidia kuwaajiri vijana wetu wengi ambao kwa sasa hawana ajira.

Mheshimiwa Spika, asante kwa fursa hii, na naunga mkono Hoja hii ambayo imeletwa Bungeni na Seneta Hamida.

Asante.

As you are aware, they say an easier way to get into a man's heart is through food. This is free advice to all women. Therefore, the food-making process is so sacrosanct and sacred. Of course, after getting good food, there is also “food” number two that should be implemented after eating good food. The distinguished Senator from Homa Bay should see me in camera, so that I can explain in detail how that second food is being handled.

For the incoming governor of Garissa, I take the note. I know these are your final days serving as the Speaker before you take over as the distinguished governor of Garissa. Make sure you bring everybody onboard. Of course, we are proud as UDA because we know you will run on a UDA ticket. This DCP is only available somewhere in Wamunyoro, not beyond Wamunyoro.

On clean cooking, I wish the distinguished Senator for Homa Bay, Sen. Moses Otieno Kajwang,’ would have spoken. I would have wished he had spoken before, but I know we will benefit from his vast experience being the Chairperson of the Climate Caucus, especially on this, because this is a very important aspect of clean cooking.

As you are aware, I know as pastoralists, this should go on record. I advise the owner of the Motion to settle and listen to the Solomonic wisdom from Members, so that she is able to reply.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, where you and I come from – and I heard the seconder of the Motion – we, dry Kalenjin men, do not appear anywhere near the kitchen nor cook. It is women's business to cook in my culture. It is an abomination and a curse for a dry Kalenjin man to appear even near the door of a kitchen. Even during the rites of passage, we cannot go into the kitchen. This is our culture. We should be proud of our culture. If in other cultures men cook, so be it, but from my culture, Kalenjin community, we do not go to the kitchen. This happens even in the Somali community, where you come from, Mr. Temporary Speaker. That is the sacrosanct and sacred area for our women. Let us allow women to do their thing. That is why we rarely interfere with the cooking.

Therefore, I wanted to put the record straight for us who come from a particular region, so that you understand where we are coming from.

(Sen. Kavindu spoke off record) I did not know Sen. Kavindu can heckle. This is the first time I am seeing her heckling in the Senate. I saw her governor also imitating our deputy president, so I do not know whether it is the nature of people of Machakos. You saw the governor sunk too low and started imitating the deputy president.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, on clean cooking, looking at Articles 42 and 70, Sen. Hamida, the right to clean and healthy environment is very critical. It is very important that, as a country, we have access to a clean and healthy environment. Since I have told you that, we, dry Kalenjin men, do not access the kitchen – when growing up and sitting from what we call the “big” house, nyumba kubwa,” you could see a lot of smoke coming from the kitchen. I empathise and sympathise with our mothers because some of us grew up in a rural village. I grew up in Kapkeben Village in Mosoriot Township, Chesumei Sub-county, in Nandi County. That is where I was born and bred. I grew up with my parents and uncle. Cooking was so tedious and painful for my mother. Sometimes food would take forever to be ready because the firewood was not dry enough. By the time the food was being brought, some of us would have slept.

Although we grew up, there was not enough food. There was a strategy to cook for long, especially in the evening since there was no food. It was a strategy by our mothers in the evening to cook something that took long, so that the children could sleep. By the time you woke up in the morning, you would forget that you had not eaten.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I know the challenges our mothers suffer from, especially the respiratory diseases. We are being told that in Kenya, we have 23,000 deaths annually caused by use of firewood for cooking. This causes some of our mothers

who cook in the kitchen to get respiratory diseases, asthmatic attacks and many others problems. In Tanzania, there are 33,000 deaths annually in comparison, from people who suffer while cooking using firewood. Therefore, this a serious issue affecting our women and with women empowerment, we should have clean cooking energy.

In the village where I come from, we use firewood, and if Sen. Methu came to my home and there is no cooking gas and because the firewood is not dry enough, it would take long to prepare tea. Maybe, the guests would go thinking that people are being mean. You are not being mean because the firewood was not dry enough to cook.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this is a big issue and I thank the Mover of the Motion. Even for schools, I propose that we must transition our schools to adopt clean cooking processes. I went to Kapsabet Boys High School, which has produced two distinguished presidents. Today in the morning, I heard somebody alluding that President Moi, President William Ruto and of course, yours truly, might become a president in future--- In school, we could not take food in good time. Sometimes ugali, vegetables or the meat was not well prepared because they were using firewood to cook in most of our schools. I do not want to imagine the fate of those cooks that used to cook for us since we were 1,000 plus, and whether they are still there, because they suffered a lot. Therefore, there should be clean cooking in our schools. I know the Senator for Mombasa County has alluded to the process of Taifa Gas. The Ministry of Education should ensure that there is access to clean cooking in our schools.

I have only seen the resolution to county governments and the prayers by the distinguished Senator, but they should also include the Ministry of Education putting such in place. For us who are not beneficiaries of bursaries, our not well-off parents used to supply firewood to schools as part of pay-off for school fees.

As we think along to ensure that we have clean cooking gas in schools, we must also factor parents who used to supply firewood to schools to cover the cost of fees. Those are some of the challenges that we will need to grapple with. The country needs to move forward because the President is saying we go to Singapore via Canaan. Singapore will have clean cooking gas. When we go to Singapore, there will be good roads.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I saw the Senator for Nairobi City County chiding Homa Bay County. I hope the distinguished Senator for Homa Bay, Moses Kajwang’ will tell us that the Government has only done one dual road in Homa Bay that the people of Homa Bay are proud of. I thought that was their mchongoano kind of because there are many roads that are being done in Homa Bay and even our money ‘sleeps’ in Homa Bay because the distinguished Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning is a good friend of Moses Kajwang’. Even the Principal Secretary (PS) for Internal Security and National Administration comes from Homa Bay, but apparently, there is accusation of goons in that county. I hope that matter can be resolved.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I am told they are not goons. They are security alternatives, but if your Cabinet Secretary is Murkomen, you can imagine worse things because of his incompetence.

I appeal to the distinguished Senator for Homa Bay to set the record straight, especially on development by the Government because we have done more roads. When I saw the Senator of Nairobi City County, who could not address anybody in Homa Bay, trying to lecture us on how there is only one dual road in Homa Bay, that was laughable against the people of Homa Bay. Sen. Kajwang’ being a close ally of the man who does the budget and ensures monetary allocation, John Mbadi Ng’ongo, should set the record straight, so that the people of Homa Bay who are watching, will not be taken for granted. The PS should put in place the necessary mechanisms.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I see my time is running, but I want to propose that under the Kenya National Cooking Transition Strategy 2024-2028, we will need more than Kshs65 billion to transition most of our women to clean cooking. I hope the distinguished Senator is noting that. We need a clean cooking fund of Kshs65 billion. I know it will come from carbon financing and international partners.

I saw someone calling out on the issue of Magadi Company. We appeal to foreign investors to invest in clean cooking, but it is not a right for them to come and violate the laws of this country. Even Magadi Company, which has been there for 100 years, owes the people of Magadi Kshs1 billion and Kshs17 billion to the County Government of Kajiado. He wants us to treat Tata Chemicals with kids' gloves. We are not allowing post or modern-day colonialism in this country. What the President did is within the law. He must protect his people.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, remember even Donald Trump. He is kicking out illegal immigrants. Is it an offense for us to do the same thing? If the free world is evicting aliens who are threatening peace, security, trade and economy, who are we as Kenyans? If the distinguished Senator of Kisii is the court jester of these investors, I will give him free advice; tell them to pay Kshs1 billion to the people of Magadi. Tell them to pay Kshs17 billion to the people of Kajiado.

up with Tata Chemicals as an example, that even if you have invested in Kenya, it does not give you the right not to give us value for our investment. Remember Tata Chemicals have been exporting raw materials. We want investors to ensure we have a finished product.

The second proposal is that we should remove Value Added Tax (VAT) on LPG because 3kgs of LPG gas cylinder is Kshs2,200 and to refill is Kshs700. Thirteen kilogrammes is Kshs6,500 and to replace is Kshs2,700 plus and 50kgs is even more. I appeal to the Senator that we remove VAT on LPG gases, so that our women, who are earning less than a dollar a day, can purchase through the Taifa Gas.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, this is an important Motion. Clean cooking is a critical milestone in ensuring that we promote issues of environment. It also protects our forests since we are pushing to have 15 billion trees. I hope the distinguished Senators who are members of the Climate Caucus will guide on how we can---

(Sen. Cherarkey’s microphone was switched off)

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I shared earlier in the morning when we were having a conversation with the Climate Caucus how my mother suffered from cataracts. Thank God there are facilities in this country that have come up with proper solutions where a cataract can be peeled off at a small fee and our women can see and read the Bible again. One of the effects of cataracts in our women beyond the potential of blinding them is that they are no longer able to read their Bibles, hymnals and letters from their children who are in cities.

When we talk about clean cooking, it is not just another Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) buzzword. This is a matter of life and death. It is a matter of constitutional principles and the rights that we have in the Constitution.

The numbers we have been given paint a sad picture. We are told that 66 per cent of Kenyan households still rely on firewood, charcoal and biomass. The disparity is greater in rural areas where statistics is at 90 per cent. Again, if you look at Kenya, the distribution follows the pattern of Sessional Paper No.10. Many counties that are far away from tarmac use firewood as opposed to those that are closer to the tarmac.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we just shared a conversation earlier. Yes, we can talk about clean cooking but do people have the food to cook? We can say that we should transition from firewood and charcoal to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or induction cookers but have we first of all fixed the issue of food security?

Again, the issue of food security in this country follows the patterns of historical marginalisation. There are some corners in this country where putting together a meal for you to cook is almost an impossibility. There are some parts of this country where people go to sleep on milk from their cows without an opportunity to boil it. Of course, there are some areas in this country where people have to use microwaves to warm food or leftovers because they have got excess or surplus.

In as much as we are talking about e-cooking or clean cooking, we must also ask ourselves whether we have solved that fundamental problem of ensuring that every Kenyan has got food, a meal or something that they would subject to heat or cooking. I believe this country has made fairly good progress since Independence. Perhaps, the percentage of Kenyans who are able to put a meal on the table has grown. Of course, it is not universal and that should be a case of great concern.

We have schools on the other hand which is also another big industry for food production. We are told that 90 per cent of Kenyan schools still use firewood, charcoal and biomass. We also cannot frown upon it. I know people in this House and many others who were educated using proceeds from sale of charcoal. Perhaps, a family has got no regular income or is not in the cash economy. For a parent to pay fees, they cut down a tree, cure it in the traditional process, generate like two sacks of charcoal and take them to school, so that it takes care of a child. Many people have been educated on that basis. However, that use of charcoal, firewood and biomass leads to avoidable deaths. We can save lives if we transition to clean cooking.

Statistics indicate that 26,000 people die every year as a result of pollution and dangerous effects of firewood, charcoal and biomass. Those are avoidable deaths. Sen. Hamida cited a figure of 23,000. However, this morning when we got a presentation from

the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, the right figure is 26,000. So, the situation is even more severe than reported in the Motion.

Like I said earlier, if we transition to clean cooking, we can save time especially for girls because in some parts of the country, it has been normalised that one of the job descriptions of a young girl growing up is to go and fetch firewood. In my culture and language, there is a word for it. It is called moto. Moto is seen to be a task designated for girls. Boys are generally not expected to do it. As a result, girls sometimes are not able to compete at the same rate and level as boys because they are exposed to dangers of going to the bush to look for firewood.

We can save our forests when we transition to clean cooking. We are told that Kenyan schools alone – about 46,000 of them excluding Early Childhood Development and Education (ECDE) centres – use an equivalent of 10,000 hectares every year to prepare meals. Generally, we are told the statistics of the kind of trees that we cut every year to take care of our food preparation needs is something that can lead to rapid deforestation in this country.

When we talk of saving our forests, many a time, this 10,000-hectare equivalent that goes to schools is rarely replanted. We need to encourage our schools to use solutions and technologies that take them away from forests and charcoal. That can be achieved easily through solarisation. Some people think that solar produced energy cannot prepare meals. Electricity is electricity, irrespective of how it is generated. Once it is converted into electrical form, it can prepare meals. So it does not matter whether it came from solar, geothermal, hydro or Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

We are already having conversations on how schools can transition to green energy and then use that green energy to ensure that they proceed to clean cooking. Recently, the Senate Climate Caucus paid a visit to a school in Siaya called Nyawara Girls, and the administration of the school indicated that they were able to save quite a lot of money when they transitioned from the traditional cooking methods to clean cooking. We rarely give credit to Governor Sakaja, the Governor of Nairobi City, but I want to give him his flowers on the Floor of this House on one thing that he has done; that is the Giga Kitchen. The Giga Kitchen is where they are aggregating and consolidating the preparation of meals. Ideally, it should have been for Early Childhood Education centres, but he has extended it to primary schools. Some might argue that it is an encroachment on devolved functions but if we have 46,000 schools, you can imagine each school having its own cooking system. You will have 46,000 cooking systems.

I would support a situation where at county level or at zonal or sub-county level, we can aggregate through Giga Kitchens, make them clean and green and ensure that we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. We are told in the case of schools, that every school emits about 188 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. So, if we consolidate through Giga Kitchens, like you have seen in Nairobi, then we can even file for carbon credits.

Sen. Hamida has also called upon county and national Government to ensure that clean cooking projects can benefit from the provisions of Article 6.2 of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change talks about bilateral trade of carbon credits. It brings into focus what we call Internationally Transferred Mitigation Outcomes (ITMOs). It is a

fairly controversial subject, which sometimes can lead to what we call carbon colonisation, but our country, Kenya, this Senate, has recently made amendments to the Climate Change Act to give better and proper provisions for carbon trading. We have come up with carbon trading regulations, so I do not fear that ITMOs will be abused in Kenya. Through clean cooking, as I conclude, we can hand over a clean and safe environment to our children.

Ideally, I do not know about the other Senators, but I want to believe that collectively, the reason that we are here is to make the best decisions, to come up with the best plans, not just for ourselves, but for future generations. We call upon the national Government to ensure that supply and affordability gaps are dealt with, because as we say, for some people, the priority is to get the food. They do not care whether they will use firewood or charcoal.

Their problem is to first get the food. Secondly, we must make sure that the clean cooking alternatives are affordable, and that might require some preferential tariff treatment. We have seen some industries that are already doing that. Perhaps, the Government should roll out subsidy programmes to incentivise institutions.

As the Climate Caucus, we have been working closely with the National Treasury and with the Green Climate Fund, and are currently working on a proposal that should be able to unlock grants that schools can access for them to upgrade their cooking facilities from the traditional charcoal and firewood to clean e-cooking solutions. We hope that proposal will find favour with the Green Climate Fund. This Motion is not a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO) story. It is not an alien story. It is about the health and the lives of our women and our daughters. It is about reducing cataracts, respiratory illnesses, carbon emissions and the cost that schools and households incur. I therefore support this, and on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), I think President Ruto will be hosting some conversations on this particular matter.

I support the Motion.

Nowadays, there is a shortage of rain because of cutting trees in water catchment areas which normally bring rain. There is also soil erosion, which is brought about by deforestation. All this deforestation will lead to climate change, which we are now discussing on how to eliminate and reduce cooking through firewood.

In our area in Garissa, where we come from, we do not use firewood only for cooking. In fact, we even use it as lighting for reading, because sometimes when we wake up early in the morning at Four O'clock, you go to madrassa and there is no light. So, the teacher tells you to light firewood, so that you can use it for reading. That is how bad it is and how it escalates health issues for children. In fact, we are still using it. So, we urge county governments and the national Government to take initiative on last mile connectivity, so that we can use electricity for reading.

The other issue is health. I remember a family perished in one urban town when it was cold. They used a charcoal jiko to get some heat and the mother forgot to put it off. In the morning, people realised that the woman and her children had died. This was because they inhaled carbon monoxide the whole night and it is not good for our health because it kills people. The national Government and the county governments should take initiative and educate the people that they should use the charcoal jikos in open and not in closed areas. If we do that, we will save families.

The other issue is the quality of food cooked using firewood. There are people who say that githeri or meat cooked using firewood is tastier than the one cooked using gas. They say that the smoke makes the food tasty. We should help people understand that firewood does not add taste to the food. Instead, the taste of food comes from the ingredients used when cooking and not the type of fire used. We should educate our people and help remove that perception. If we do that, we will eradicate the use of smoke while cooking.

I have made reference to Article 43(1)(c) of the Constitution on the quality of food, but the question is, do people have food? We must first ask ourselves if the food is available. If we have food, the girls and boys can go to school. In as much as we are trying to eradicate this, we must also ensure that we have food on our table.

Article 42 of the Constitution states that every person has a right to a clean environment. How does the environment look like when we use charcoal and firewood? If you go to an open kitchen where they use firewood and charcoal, you will see how that kitchen looks like. There is no need of explanation on that. One just needs to go out of this Chamber and visit a kitchen where they use firewood. They will get to see the environment there. To avoid such an environment, we need to implement what is stated in Article 42 of the Constitution by maintaining a clean environment.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, where I come from, women have to go out to collect firewood. They carry heavy loads for long distance. When they get old, they end up having spinal problems and cannot walk due to the effect of the heavy load that they carried every day. We need to prevent such kinds of effects.

In as much as we want to eradicate firewood and charcoal cooking and champion for clean cooking, we must appreciate that clean cooking is expensive. The Government has to come in. The Motion has stated how we need to eradicate the use of firewood and what we need to do to make clean cooking cheaper and accessible in the rural areas like

the Northern Kenya and other part of the country. We have to make it easy for people to access a safe cooking environment.

We visited a school in Kisumu that practices safe cooking. That facility was installed in that school by Ecobora Company. They have an electric stove. The cooker demonstrated to us how they use that stove and she told us that they would previously spend almost six hours to cook githeri but with that stove, they only take two hours to cook the githeri. That means that the stove is easier to use and safe. They also spend less electric tokens hence the stove is cheaper than firewood. That has actually reduced their cooking budget.

We, therefore, urge the national Government and the county governments to ensure that all our secondary schools use the Ecobora electric stove under the Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) project. All the 47 counties have FLLoCA budget and that money is meant for community-led projects. If we educate our community on the effects and danger of firewood and charcoal, they can have all the schools use the Ecobora electric stove. With that, the FLLoCA fund can be used to support such projects.

With all those remarks, I support the Motion and appreciate Sen. Kibwana. I urge her to continue supporting women and girls. If this Motion is implemented, the women and girls in northern Kenya will be somewhere they can compete with men.

Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir.

Secondly, there have been issues of eyesight that have been discussed by previous speakers. So, as we talk about clean cooking, we are also promoting the health of our women and that of our households.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, clean cooking will also help us to solve the problem of deforestation. When you reflect back on our communities, you will find that even forests are diminishing. Bushes are no longer there. As a young girl, I grew up in my village and it was fun going together in the afternoons to collect firewood. Collecting firewood was fun. First, we were collecting it to allow our mothers to cook. Secondly, it was fun because it gave us time to also sharpen our social skills along our peers as we went looking for firewood. Unfortunately, those forests are not there today. So, as a country and a globe, we must move to the next level.

I have talked about SDG (3) that talks about well-being. It reflects on the dignity of our women and households. That, here we have houses probably which are smaller, but our mothers are reduced to having kitchens within those houses, your bedroom and sitting room. That is the picture that we have with the majority in the village. Now, add on to the fact that you have to cook using firewood. You can see the kind of indignity that our mothers were exposed to. As we adopt this Motion and go further, we will also be enhancing the dignity of our mothers and households.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, the reason we must support this Motion is because of the way land has been subdivided over a period of time. There is no space. If you wanted to go collecting firewood, you would find that land has been subdivided and there is the issue of ownership and identity. Pieces of land are fenced and generally the young girls, even if they wanted, would not have access to go and collect that firewood. So, there is limited space. As I have said, we also have to attend to the issue of climate change.

Therefore, I support this. I am happy that Sen. Hamida has given certain roles to the county and national governments. Let us call out our county governments. As we adopt the modern cooking methods and gadgets, the county governments, as governments that are closer to our people, must go out to create awareness to communities. Not only should they create awareness but also go ahead and be innovative to the public. There should be demonstration days for mothers to see the alternative sources of cooking. That is a major role that the county governments must take as the national Government emphasises on the issue of standards and quality of the gadgets that we will be proposing for use.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, when we take to the new clean cooking methods, our mothers and households will also be saving time. As demonstrated by Sen. Cherarkey earlier, women would cook using longer time. Sometimes it was because of unavailability of firewood or even the quality of firewood. You know the nature of the lives of our mothers. That, from morning, our mothers do everything and their time is spent on a number of chores. If we adapted modern ways of cooking, that would save a lot of time for our mothers which can be used elsewhere. That is why we want to support the initiative that was spelt out by the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum in the country about the cylinder project. Could the Ministry go ahead and facilitate and probably speed up this project?

Since we are going to solve both a health and social issue, we could even have a scenario where the Government ensures that in each household, it becomes a basic requirement to have a gas cylinder. This is possible. We have seen it in the health sector when we have disasters. The Government goes out to spell what can be given to households or to Kenyans.

Households can also be provided with gas cylinders that are affordable and sustainable because finally, that will be solving the issue of health, climate change, dignity for our people. That is why I also support the idea of the affordable houses that are being built. The Government can ensure that their kitchens are designed in a way that they accommodate the modern cooking methods that we are suggesting here.

His Excellency the President talks about Vision 2060. I have often told colleagues elsewhere that visioning is about a future. Visions are not about us today. Visions are about the future generations and everybody must come out to support such visions because it is not about us. It is never about politics or the vision carrier, but about the future of this country.

Just as other leaders had conceived Vision 2030 that has driven the sectors we have in this country to where we are, globally, nations are evaluating their performance on Vision 2030. At the global stage, we might not have reached there but it has taken nations to where we are. All sectors have always had a roadmap to move to where we are. That is why principally, I support the fact that Kenyans should be engaging in Vision

1. 2030. We should not think about personalities or whoever is there. However, let us think about the Kenya of tomorrow. This is consistent with what we are talking about today because we are talking about modernity and uplifting a traditional area that has caused problems. I support this Motion and I want to say that it will restore the overall dignity of women. A number of people think that cooking is about women. However, cooking is about families and about humanity. We cannot all want to go and enjoy some food at lunch time, when we take a break, and yet we think that cooking is something that should be inferior. Let us go ahead, and take a stand. Let us restore the dignity of our women and ensure that our households are moving to the next level. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I support.

grandmother who has endured several years of smoke in her lungs. Those are not just tales. They are real-life stories that we must connect with and be very realistic.

Since we want to tell our women to embrace clean cooking, that might actually sound like a fashionable conversation happening in Nairobi. If we are not conversant with the realities that are happening on the ground, then no matter how many policies we launch, how many conversations we have, ordinary women in the rural areas or in the villages will still go back to the traditional ways of cooking because they cannot afford those alternative ways of cooking.

The alternative ways of cooking prevent them from harmful smoke, assist them to protect trees and live in dignity. In addition, the children have time to go to school, and women in general have time to get into business and be economically stable. So, the conversation on clean cooking touches on each one of us. It actually calls for us to connect the national policy that we were discussing this morning at the breakfast table and tally it with the realities on the ground. As much as we want to rally our people in support of clean cooking, we also need to look at the realities that they face as we walk this journey. I generally support this Motion because it is also in line with Article 42 of the Constitution that guarantees every Kenyan the right to a clean and healthy environment.

As a Parliament, we have an opportunity to support proposals which are brought to this House because they touch on our people in a positive manner. I also want to commend Sen. Hamida for being consistent in bringing matters that touch on ordinary people daily, especially in the health sector. The matter on clean cooking is not just in energy.

This is a matter of public concern, especially for public health. As legislators who are making life-and-death decisions, we need to take this seriously. I want to support this Motion so that we are not just conversing. An ordinary mother in Bomachoge, Kenya, should cook without tears in her eyes. No tears of sadness or tears of smoke. They should enjoy the meal they are making without having to endure the long hours of smoke.

I thank you.

firewood or charcoal, I almost suffocate. I do not get oxygen. I rarely go into such kitchens.

If you look at the kitchens where they cook with firewood or charcoal, there is always a black wall, black ceiling and droppings of black soot. The women and girls breathe in that carbon. So, they are not better than smokers. Smoking causes cancer. The carbon from firewood and charcoal causes cancer, just like smoking.

Therefore, the Motion on clean cooking is very important. This issue also brings destruction to our forests and the trees that we plant around our homes because right now, we do not have many forests for people to go and fetch firewood. You will find people cutting down trees. This also brings about climate change that we are facing now. There is lack of rain. We do not have enough rain because we have destroyed our forests and trees.

When I look at the number of deaths caused by unclean cooking, about 23,000 women and girls die every year due to that smoke and air pollution. As one of us has said, the affordable houses that are being built should consider putting up this system so that they provide a place for clean cooking.

We are seeing empowerment programmes across the country with the Kenya Kwanza Government moving around saying that they are empowering people. If they empower women with gas cookers and gas cylinders, they will really have saved them from dying.

Article 42 of our Constitution guarantees everyone a clean environment. This is a law that has not been put into practice in this current and even other governments. I wish we would stick to our Constitution, keep the rule of law and implement the Constitution of Kenya 2010. That would bring a lot of change. If this was implemented from 2010, Sen. Hamida would not be bringing such a Motion because everyone today would be having a clean environment in their homes and that includes clean cooking.

When you look at the other countries that we imitate, you will not find any of those people or their women cooking with firewood or even charcoal. They are very far ahead and if we really love our people and humanity, we should provide clean cooking for our women and girls. In remote areas, you find many girls do not go to school because they go to fetch firewood for the mothers to cook. Girls miss classes because they go to fetch firewood. Others are raped in the bushes as they look for firewood because they will meet bad people who rape them and leave them at the mercy of their mothers taking them to hospital. While there, because this is happening even today in the current era, many of these rape cases, once taken to court, they are not followed properly. Mothers are also persuaded by elders or villagers to deal with the cases privately in their homes and they do not get justice. Some mothers are raped while in the bushes looking for firewood because they do not have their own land. They are compromised by people to exchange their dignity with firewood.

This is a very important Motion. This House must pass it to protect our girls and women. I am very passionate because I know there are very many women and girls out there who are vulnerable. They cannot stand on their own and defend themselves. They have no one to defend them. They are vulnerable and because they have to cook, they go an extra mile to compromise their dignity.

I urge this House to pass this Motion and support it fully, so that our women and girls can have dignity and continue going to school. You have heard the Senator from Garissa saying that they even study using light from firewood. I mean, in the current world, is this really Kenya? We should provide a place for clean cooking. Should our students and pupils study using light from firewood? The Government should come to the rescue of Garissa people and others who are also using such methods to study. These children have a right like any other child in the country.

Let me finish by saying that the County Government of Garissa and such counties that are so backward like this, even with the Equalisation Fund, should come forward and connect electricity to the citizens of Garissa, Mandera and the rest of the counties where people use firewood to study at Madrassa.

Congratulations for bringing up this Motion for us to learn that there are counties where people cannot even--- Oh my God. We have solar systems. Those counties must be called to order to install solar systems for their people, even before the national Government connects electricity. I am also calling upon the Kenya Kwanza Government to run to Mandera very fast and connect electricity to save those women and children.

I congratulate the Mover and support this Motion.

We used to read at night using the same firewood especially the one that gives light. That is the reason why in most of our communities, people are suffering from respiratory diseases such as asthma and cataracts due to lack of electricity. Therefore, those of you who come from around this city, Machakos, part of Kajiado, Kiambu and Murang’a, are the people who are already in Singapore. We are working hard. We thank His Excellency the President because he wants to take everybody to Singapore. I know most of you have been enjoying Singapore for the past 60 years. Now, it is our opportunity to ensure that those who are marginalised get power.

I was in Wajir sometimes last year with the Sen. Abass, with the Committee on Energy. There, they use generators to generate and supply power to people. When those generators break down, they stay for weeks or months without clean power. We encourage our governors, please, use the resources that we have allocated in this house; the shareable revenue and own-source revenue to give your people power. Give them solar and clean energy. We will progressively connect those areas. I know that the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (REREC) and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum are doing mini-grids in the northern counties, Turkana and Isiolo, so that they are connected on mini-grids to supply clean energy. However, counties also need to allocate some resources.

Recently, in the course of last week or this week, the Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum said, to fast-track clean energy in our counties, we need to do what they call matching funds, a shilling for a shilling. If counties give out Kshs50 million, the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum will give them Kshs50 million and then we fast-track the last mile connectivity in our country. However, the biggest challenge is that the governors do not listen. We do not know where they take this money. People are dying. Therefore, this is a timely Motion that we need to pass so that our people can benefit and have clean energy.

On the sustainable calls, one of them says we need to have clean energy by 2030. I know we have already gone into the next period of beyond 2030. We want to have a plan. There is last mile connectivity and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). There is a programme. In the last parliament, the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum had come up with a plan to ensure all our institutions, especially public secondary schools and universities, no longer use firewood and charcoal. They should instead use LPG.

I agree that all the affordable houses that are coming up need to be connected with LPG plant. You connect LPG to all the houses. Instead of people buying gas cylinders, you metre them. It is cheaper to use LPG than to use firewood or charcoal. It is also cheaper to use LPG than to use electricity. However, electricity is also cheaper than firewood. We need to go this way. We educate our people in the counties. We should do sensitisation on the need to use alternative sources of energy instead of firewood or charcoal so that we do not destroy our forests.

The reason there is climate change and global warming is forest destruction. I remember a few years ago, Elgeyo-Marakwet County was number two in the country, with 38 percent forest cover. Now we are 24 at per cent. We have started initiatives, for instance, Kaptagat Integrated Plan and Cherangany Hills; to increase the forest cover from the current 24 per cent to about 34 or 40 per cent, so that we go back to where we

were as number two after Nyeri. The reason why Nyeri has a higher percentage of forest cover is Mount Aberdare and Mount Kenya. We need to encourage our governors and our people. If you have 10 acres, at least one acre of your land should be put under forest cover. This will help you with very good oxygen and manure. When the shrubs and leaves eventually decompose, it becomes manure to make the soil more fertile.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, there are many things that our colleague has said. The Council of Governors should develop county-based level policies, frameworks and budgets that mainstream clean cooking into devolved energy and health functions. They need to be serious. We need that engagement with the Council of Governors so that when we do resolutions like this, they go and implement. We also give them timelines so that we do not just speak and then, after five years, there is nothing that can be seen on the ground.

This should also minimise the number of people who are going to the hospital with eye problems and respiratory issues. Our girls in the rural areas still go to fetch firewood and water. The boys are very busy looking after cows, goats and sheep. Last weekend, I had gone to Marsabit for dowry negotiations for a daughter of a friend of ours. As we drove along the road, through Samburu, Isiolo and Marsabit, we could see young children, boys aged between eight and 12 years, very busy herding animals. They were not in school. That means even their homes do not have clean energy. It means we are continuing to lose young people who should be in school. We need to follow that.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, the National Treasury and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum prioritises clean cooking in financing frameworks, including result-based financing and blended finance models to de-risk private investment. Two years ago, there was a moratorium on generation of clean energy; solar, hydro and geothermal. They were not picking up new BPS, but at least, that one was unlocked early this year. We encourage the Ministry to partner with the private sector on generation of low-cost clean energy. There is a plan to do what we call Taifa Gas in Mombasa, and we have even promised that during the Senate Mashinani, as a committee, we will visit to see the plant.

How will they fast-track clean energy to our people and schools? We want all the schools, the over 23,000 or 24,000 secondary schools and an equivalent number of junior secondary schools, instead of using firewood and charcoal, to use clean energy, preferably LPG. This will ensure that our schools are environment friendly. This will also stop schools from being set on fire because students are asked to fetch firewood over the weekend. This will also ensure that parents are not asked to supply firewood for cooking. The students may use this firewood to set the school on fire.

Therefore, I support this Motion. Let us not make this a talk show. It should become actionable and deliverable. We should follow up to ensure that it is implemented fully.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, with those many remarks, I support. This is a very progressive Motion that will unlock many things, especially for our households, school institutions. Many institutions are capable. The universities and colleges are able to generate revenue. So, they need to progressively get rid of firewood and use LPG. Set up plants and ensure they are secure, so that we also do not go to LPG and then we expose the institutions.

Expressway and these are the realities we are going to be facing in a short time. Therefore, we must begin somewhere.

We are aware of Financing Locally-Led Climate Action (FLLoCA) funds. I attended the briefing meeting in Naivasha. I was disappointed by how Kshs38 billion was spent. The money was looted. The Auditor-General flagged that out. There are projects that were supposed to be done in the counties in the past 10 years or so using the FLLoCA funds.

In Makueni, there is a dam that was done using Kshs500 million but it collapsed. That means it was not done properly. The whole idea of that dam was to generate seedlings so that people can create forests by planting more trees especially local ones which do not need to be watered immediately after. You can imagine how badly that money was used.

Recently, part of the FLLoCA funds were used at a place called Thange where there was oil spillage. Those are serious environmental issues whereby a lot of people have been affected on their kidneys, liver and bone marrow. The poisoning by oil products is so severe.

Since the water system was messed up, they have attempted to use FLLoCA funds to come up with a programme which needs to be expanded to cover the whole area. They have managed to get some water for the people of Thange. That needs to be taken downstream so that people stop consuming poisoned water. When El Niño comes, that water will come to the surface and go all the way to the Indian Ocean.

Use of solar energy is useful. Although it is not effective when the whether is cloudy during months like June and July, with advanced technology, it is possible to harness adequate solar energy which can be used for cooking. Although the initial investment in solar energy is high, in the long run, it is cheaper than electricity.

When we had a meeting on climate change this morning, I put to task the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum. I asked them to explain why the cost of electricity is so high if our aim is to save forests. If we make the cost of electricity affordable, it means many schools will use it. That will save us from cutting trees which have turned out to be more expensive than use of electricity, LPG and solar energy. It is one area the country needs to have a budget on so that in future, all the gains the country has made do not get swept away when we have a phenomena like El Niño like we saw in Nepal and parts of China that border Nepal. Many expensive homes and roads were swept away. That is what we want to avoid.

By and large, Kenyans will soon be on their own when we have El Niño. I am challenging the current Government to start doing something and utilise the emergency budget properly so that we do not have trouble when El Niño comes.

There is also the issue of the number of people who die due to smoke poisoning, cancer and lung-related diseases. Women and girls are 23,000 while men are 3,000. If we have to stop using firewood, it means electricity has to be availed in many parts of the country.

There are programmes such as the Last Mile Connectivity Project that have stalled. Many a times they are unaccountable. Again, the Auditor-General flagged out projects which are marked to have been done such as the Last Mile Connectivity Project

but villagers only see posts which are taken away after one year. However, when you look at the Government records, you will see that a particular area has been electrified. When you bring forth that information, no one will be prosecuted for stealing from the coffers.

Therefore, we want to see serious use of solar energy programmes and supply of electricity to every part of this country, so that we save our forests and mitigate effects of climate change in the world. That will also save our people. That calls for a serious investment by the country and stakeholders. Stakeholders should participate in that. That is in Article 42 of our Constitution. It goes on to show the sort of money which Africa is supposed to be gaining from stakeholders for making sure that we follow and make sure that we plant more trees as the best way to reduce emissions. The world is changing and technology is improving. We now have a lot of electric cars in a similar effort, we have electric motorbikes, even we are reducing the use of energy which brings carbon to the surface of the earth.

With all this firewood being used for cooking, you would imagine how much is being emitted. It is even much more than what vehicles emit. So, there should be general agreement in the country and practice so that we save lives in terms of diseases originating from wet firewood, where you are not able to get dry firewood.

For every firewood collected every day, a shrub is lost, a tree is lost. We are not planting and replacing the trees in the same way because the FLLoCA programmes have been looted by people who are supposed to be taking care of them and the people do not want to account. I want to challenge this House and the Finance and Budget Committee to make sure that those who have misused FLLoCA funds account for them. This will prevent further misuse because the whole idea of FLLoCA is to improve climate and more importantly, to build dams, bring water near the people where they can also grow tree nurseries and distribute to the people. Even in research programmes, some universities like Lukenya have done very well because they are able to come up with seedlings which survive on dry land.

As long as you plant them during the rains, they will survive and you will not need to water them again. Sometimes people plant trees, but because they are not being watered, there is no water in the country in the first place, then the seedlings die off and there is a big loss. So, that effort should be put together. I agree that we should begin with institutions to make sure that the bigger institutions such as universities, colleges and secondary schools no longer use firewood.

That will go a long way in achieving the intention of this Motion. That will also be a source of learning for students who go back to the villages and practice clean cooking. We want to use methane from cow dung and that sort of technology. Unfortunately, it has not been practical.

I have seen that 83 per cent of schools in central Kenya that keep cows are already practicing use of this. This can be very useful. It is clean energy. However, that technology is not yet right and it has also been infiltrated by conmen who pretend they are going to build the systems. They take your money and end up with something which does not work.

I know the United Nations has supported that but it has not been as effective as it should have been in the country. They even have jikos which work for that. But a lot of times the idea is to sell the jikos and then somebody will never use the gas produced from waste.

It is also another better way of dealing with waste in schools, in places where cattle keeping is done or in places where people have access to water and cow dung and they are doing zero grazing. It is very easy and it is one way of eventually saving the forests and trees from being cut. I agree and congratulate Sen. Hamida Kibwana for this great initiative and the way the Motion is crafted so that it is implemented. It is not one of those Motions where we urge the Government. This is implementable and in Makueni, we have already started these programmes. We are encouraging planting of more trees and having schools use this energy saving mechanisms and clean energy. There are a number of institutions running in Makueni County. We eventually hope to catch up and lead the country in making sure that we save our forests.

problem getting cooking fuel. Most of the young girls and mothers carry heavy loads of firewood on their backs and that has affected them health-wise. It is high time that this country became serious. As has already been said, this is provided for constitutionally. Article 42 of the Constitution guarantees every person the right to a clean and healthy environment which includes access to safe energy. Therefore, this must be implemented.

It is actually in Parliament that we can compel the National Treasury to give resources for clean energy. Some time ago, there was cheap cooking gas that was being distributed. However, I am surprised now that it has been done away with. I do not know what happened. Our policies change every day, hence, we are now busy on other things, like politics and other businesses.

We are now building low-cost houses which do not accommodate the use of firewood. Therefore, most of the people who are disadvantaged, in areas like Kibera and other slums, will have no option once they change their lifestyle in these low-cost houses. They will have to use clean energy in cooking. So, it is high time that the Government planned forward so that we do away with this firewood business and save Kenyans from dying from carbon monoxide.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we need to have a policy on cheap, clean cooking gas. You will find that this country has a lot of resources that can be explored and exploited especially in the areas that have a lot of gases, especially in my county. There are huge deposits of natural gases. So, we need to do more exploration to, at least, be able to save this country from using firewood and also save our forests.

In addition, our county assemblies need to bring up some Bills to help the people in rural areas, so that county governors can be compelled to, at least, come up with cheap gas cookers and provide clean cooking gas so that we stop clearing our bushes.

The provision of clean cooking solutions is actually within our mandate, and actually, we can provide that. This country can afford if the policies are not changed. Therefore, I would like to thank the sponsor of this Motion. Honestly, we need to change our lifestyle so that we can save many Kenyans who are dying because of carbon monoxide impact in the cooking places.

Most Kenyans use grass-thatched houses. When they cook inside the house, many of them inhale the carbon monoxide. As a result, many of them actually develop health problems, like heart problems, and die. They die slowly without even knowing what the problem is.

With those remarks, I beg to support the Motion.

house. As we have read from this Motion, we did that because we did not have an intervention from a government that cared about the health of its population. It is shocking, stunningly shocking, that the condition that many of us grew up under causes about 23,000 deaths of innocent Kenyans every year.

These people cook using three stones, not because that is what they like, but because they are economically marginalised. Some of these Motions give us an opportunity to have a conversation as a country, to know where we are and where we are going.

I heard a Senator, I think a Senator from Elgeyo Marakwet, telling us that His Excellency the President wants to take us to Singapore. It is also good to speak in context. When you want to take us to Singapore, in which state of Singapore? This Motion has been brought to the Floor by Sen. Hamida Kibwana. I am your commissioner and I know we supported a few of you to go to Singapore a few weeks ago. You can confirm to this House that the houses that were built in Singapore, what we are trying to emulate, the so-called affordable housing, use piped liquefied gas.

This business of people carrying those gas cylinders from the ground floor to the 12th floor does not happen in Singapore. That is not happening in Singapore. The only houses in Singapore that are using those gas cylinders are those ones which were built many years ago, like the house where my grandmother raised my father. So, if our President is, indeed, serious about taking us to Singapore, all affordable houses should have piped liquefied gas. I am challenging you, Sen. Wamatinga, to take a walk and go to any of these affordable houses. There is none that uses piped, liquefied gas. So, really, if we want to take this country to Singapore, let us walk the talk.

You cannot use houses that will make Kenya stagnate as a third-world country whereas in your speech, you are telling us that you are taking us to Singapore. It will not work and cannot work. The first thing you do is design this country in a way that you are taking us to Singapore.

I have looked at the design of roads that are being launched by His Excellency the President. In most places, they are the traditional one-way; you know, a car is going that way, another one is coming this way. Whereas if you want to go to Singapore, you should take my people from here to Nyamira using a three - lane highway all the way to Nyamira. That is how you transform a country into Singapore. You cannot be telling us that you are coming to launch roads.

I read in yesterday's paper that the President would be in Bomet today. Look at the roads that he is launching. They are the ones that will make us remain a third-world country. If you want to move to the status of a first-world country, you do the infrastructure. Anybody coming in should upgrade you to a first-world country. That is the reality.

You are doing affordable housing as a Government by using taxpayers' money. You have a budget of billions. Why should you construct a house that does not have piped liquefied gas? I am asking that question. How? How can that be? Then we also have to be disciplined. Now we are using these mega resources that we have as a country, with tremendous respect. Just last week, we had elections in Germany. There is a state where an opposition party, AFD, won the state elections, meaning they are going to

produce the governor, who call themselves presidents there. They are going to take over the state legislature.

I wish the Senator for Nyeri, who is aspiring to be a governor, well. I am told he is running on a United Democratic Alliance (UDA), but if he saw me separately, I would tell him to play politics that resonate with the locals. Anyone who has lived in Germany will tell you that when elections are ongoing, you could be there and you not even notice. The wastage of state resources in campaigns is limited because most of the resources are used to do activities that give services to the people.

Let us tell our President to sit back. President Kibaki was in office for 10 years. Many people in Nyamira never saw him, not even for a day, but roads were launched. We had a bridge that was connecting us to Kericho, coming in from our neighbouring county of Kericho, passing through Ikonge, Nyamira, to Kisii. At Ikonge, it goes to Nyamira, down to our neighbours in Homa Bay. That road was constructed without even a single launch by President Kibaki; not when the construction started, not even on conclusion.

Now, imagine that today, as we speak in this House, the President is in Bomet County, opening a Huduma Centre. Can you imagine? We are using state resources, while 23,000 Kenyans, including residents of my County of Nyamira, who could have been connected with piped gas are dying every day,

Honestly, can we be serious as a country? Why should the President go to launch a Huduma Centre or open a county assembly building? Are we going to allow him to go to 47 counties to open county assembly buildings using state resource, while many Kenyans are cooking using three stones?

I mean, we cannot move to be a Singapore if we continue that way because moving the President from Nairobi to Sotik is not a walk in the park. You have to send an advanced team of security officers, National Intelligence Service (NIS), where he will sleep, including choppers. That money can help poor households in Nyamira to be connected with gas and we forget about this thing of using three stones so that we save lives.

Yesterday, we were agonizing about 70 mothers who have died because nurses are on strike. Today, it is here on this Motion, and I am sure the Speaker would not have approved it unless the statistics were right. We are being told that 23,000 Kenyans are dying yearly because they are using traditional cooking methods such as charcoal and firewood, and nobody is talking about it. Instead, we are busy making trips to launch roads.

Every citizen of this country knows that they pay taxes. We know it. When a road is being constructed in my county, I normally tell my people that you should first of all congratulate yourselves that you paid the taxes, and those taxes are being used to build a road.

Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, even if you were the President, you would do the roads because why else would you be elected as a President if you cannot construct roads?

This is a very painful matter to speak to.

ADJOURNMENT