Senators have raised questions over the operations of Tullow Oil Company in the country with residents of Turkana County saying they are yet to benefit with the firm’s presence in the country for the last 13 years.

Turkana Senator James Lomenen told members of the Senate Energy Committee who visited the company premises in Lokichar area yesterday that the host community was still suffering despite having the precious crude oil worth billions of shillings within their vicinity.

Lomenen told the committee chaired by Nyeri Senator Wahome Wamatinga that the community was yet to get its five percent share while the Turkana County government was yet to get its 20 percent share from the proceeds obtained by the company after it gets crude oil from the area.

“I would like to tell the Senate Energy committee that the local community has not been involved in the activities of Tullow Oil neither have they benefitted with its presence in this region, the locals have not been compensated for the land occupied by the company,” said Lomenen.

The Turkana Senator said that the local leaders have not been engaged by the company leadership neither have they been told about the cost of the project which will set a standard for them to demand for their fair share of earnings from oil exploration exercises which they thought would change their lives.

Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale said that research done showed that Turkana County has the potential of producing 585 million barrels of crude oil and that it would most likely make Sh52 billion and that the financial benefits for the people of the local community and the entire country should be known. 

Tullow: Making of a scandal and how Kenya’s oil dream fell apart

Khalwale said that government engineers need to be part of the team carrying out the exploration exercise so that they can give the true operational standards of the company since at the moment the company activities were shrouded in a mystery and nobody can confirm the true position.

“We would like to know how the people of Turkana and the entire country will benefit by having the oil exploration exercise by Tullow Oil in the country, this company must come out clearly and tell us how our people are going to benefit while it is in the country, this should be clear to all,” said Khalwale.

Wamatinga said that the financial soundness of Tullow Oil Company was shrouded in a mystery while there are no details of the crude oil that had already been sold by the company while there was little public participation in its activities matters which he said are of great concern.

The Nyeri Senator said that his committee will liaise with the relevant government agencies to ensure that the discovery of oil in the country does not turn into a curse for the local residents who felt that the project was not benefiting them since the company set up its operations in the country in 2010.

The committee Chairman said that they will be looking for the best practices globally in oil exploration and that they would also like to know the strategy the company is putting in place to attract funding from international finance institutions and also the validity of their operating license.

“Tullow Oil has not come out clearly on the validity of its operating license, we are also aware that some local partners withdrew due to strategic reasons, we would also follow up on the government plan to ensure the company honours its obligations to the local community and the country,” said Wamatinga.

Tana River Senator Danson Mungatana asked the company to state what it has in store for the residents of Turkana, Marsabit and Isiolo Counties where it has set up its operations and wanted to know the goodwill paid to the residents of the three counties who had a lot of expectations.

Senator Oburu Oginga wondered why the company was taking too long to carry out oil exploration asking whether it was the government bureaucracy that was slowing down its operations and that the company needs to come out clearly to state why its activities appeared to stagnate.

Tullow Oil External Affairs Manager Franklin Juma told the Senate Committee that the company was looking for international financial institutions to pump in around Sh518 million so that it can be able to achieve the targets it has set for 25 years’ strategic plan in the country. By Edwin Nyarangi, The Standard

Schools in the UK need to teach the history of all four nations, the historian David Olusoga has said, warning that ambivalence and indifference risk pulling apart the union.

The fact that A-level pupils in England do not learn much about the history of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and vice versa means that Britons struggle to understand key contemporary political issues in the other nations, for example the Scottish independence movement or sectarianism in Northern Ireland, Olusoga said. 

Speaking to the Guardian before the launch of his new documentary exploring the past, present and future of the union, Olusoga said: “We underestimate the complexity and potential fragility of the UK, especially in England.

“When you talk about the union in Scotland, everyone knows what you mean. When you use the word union in England you realise it’s not a phrase you hear very often. I think we are in England less familiar with the architecture of the country and the history that explains it. That’s why I really advocate better teaching of this.”

He said he had first realised how little history is taught about the other three nations at GCSE and A-level when he arrived at university and made friends from Northern Ireland. 

He thought this lack of awareness was how unhelpful, simplistic stereotypes about other parts of the UK arise, for example the idea that everyone in the south of England is rich, when some of the UK’s most deprived areas are located there. He added that it propagates the view that the union is a purely “English project”, and an under-recognition that “our ancestors crossed borders”, similar to Olusoga’s own, some of whom moved from Scotland to Newcastle during the Industrial Revolution. 

Olusoga described the United Kingdom as “quite a strange state” as well as only 100 years old in its current form. “What we mustn’t do I feel is imagine that we on these islands are separate from the great forces of history,” he said, noting that the map of Europe over the centuries showed constantly shifting borders.

The historian said he had been moved to make the new documentary because Brexit has made this a “moment when people are thinking about the union, one of the many moments of turbulence in its history”. 

This is also partly because “many of the forces that have made the union successful and acceptable to a great number of people are in decline”, he said, citing the Protestant religion, and the wealth and opportunity spread throughout the region and nations by the Industrial Revolution and the imperial project.

This contrasts with the postwar period, which historians have referred to as “peak union”, when its benefits to all citizens were clear: the NHS was created, lots of social housing was built, there was economic opportunity around the country.

To address the shift towards an unequal society, political leaders should “think radically about what we need to do to create a sense of how to rebalance the country”, he said. Olusoga suggested that the decaying state of the House of Commons could provide a motive to move some political business outside London.

He added that the “other nations need to be encouraged to feel like partners rather than small players”.

Citing a recent IPPR report on the “ambivalent union” in which fewer than half of voters in any UK nation see maintaining the union in its current form as a priority, Olusoga said: “It seems very strange that we are discussing something that would be so seismic with one of the key emotions around it being ambivalence and [a lack of interest]. The irony is that we think what posses a risk to the union is strong anti-union sentiment rather than just indifference.” Story by Rachel Hall, The Guardian

JUBA, SEPTEMBER 26, 2023 (SUDANS POST) — South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Tuesday evening signed the controversial elections bill into law, ignoring opposition calls for removal of a section in which an elected president would have the right to appoint a portion of the members of parliament.

“President Kiir on Tuesday signed the National Elections Act, 2012 (Amendment) Act, 2023 bill into law,” the presidency said in a statement issued just after the signing of the bill by Kiir, adding that the bill was presented to the head of state by parliament speaker Jemma Nunu Kumba who is a member of Kiir’s party.

“The bill is an important element in the Revitalized peace agreement for the process of elections to commence,” said Kumba following the signing of the bill. “The country is now ready to start the preparation for the elections by putting in place the mechanism for parties to do elections.”

The bill, known as National Elections Act 2012 (Amendment Bill 2023) was passed last Thursday, largely by lawmakers representing the ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM-IG) in the transitional parliament.

Lawmakers from the main armed opposition Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in Opposition (SPLM-IO) led by First Vice President Riek Machar Teny, boycotted the sitting in which the bill would later be passed in their absence.

They were specifically opposing a new provision which gives a future president the power to appoint at least seventeen (17) members of parliament which account for 5 percent of all the parliamentarians after elections.

CEPO WELCOMES SIGNING OF BILL INTO LAW

In a statement, civil society watchdog Community Empowerment for Progress Organization (CEPO), welcomed the signing of the bill into law and stressed the importance of the creation of a legal institutional environment for conduct of elections.

“CEPO appreciates the president in fast-tracking the signing of the national elections bill into a law although it was challenged by the opposition over the introduction of the 5% power for the president to appoint 17 parliamentarians of the 332 parliamentarians after the public voting for the rest of the parliamentarians,” the statement signed by CEPO’s Executive Director Edmund Yakani reads in part.

“The creation of legal and institutional environment for the conduct of the proposed elections for December 2024 is essential within the month of the October 2024 as we advocated after the president address of the UN Security Council in New York,” the statement added.

Yakani further said that his organization “will be issuing policy direction opinion on the use of the 5% power of elected press to appoint in relation of promotion or embracing observation of inclusivity for effective participation of minority groups.”

“It should be the elections commission to develop guidelines for the use of the 5% for elected president to use,” it added. - Sudans Post

The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) has proposed the separation of presidential voting day from the other five seats during the General Election.

This is according to a presentation made by LSK President Eric Theuri to the National Dialogue Committee at the Bomas of Kenya in Nairobi on Tuesday, September 26. 

Theuri averred that if implemented, the move would allow poll losers to run for other seats. 

Additionally, LSK wants the Finance Act, 2023 taken back to Parliament for review, despite the outcome of the petitions in court.

The court is scheduled to give the final verdict on the matter in November. 

To ensure no parties contest the election results, LSK suggests that no candidates should be involved in the recruitment process of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commissioners.

“Political players should not choose the referee,” Theuri says.

A day before, the Political Parties Liaison Committee appeared before the national dialogue team and suggested the introduction of a Political Parties Fund to ensure the party does not face external interference. Last week, Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei proposed an extension of term limits from the current five years to seven years. By Winfrey Owino, The Standard