Counties need right talent, not activism, to retain jobs

Turkana South MP James Lomenen addresses demonstrators who were demanding employment, contracts and supplies from Tullow Oil. Governors should enrol he young people in polytechnics and ensure investors feel secure. Photo/FILE 

By George Wachira

In Summary

• Let Turkana be a model county on how to proactively and responsibly prepare to harness value-adding opportunities made available by oil and gas.

The violent demonstrations witnessed in Turkana oilfields last week should not have happened. Any act of insecurity is a threat to investments now and in the future.

When risk-rating a country as a destination for investments, insecurity (real or perceived) always comes up as a key parameter. And we have seen the negative impacts of insecurity at work in the oilfields of Niger Delta in Nigeria.

In Kenya, the national government has the ultimate responsibility to assure all investors of security. County governments have a shared duty to ensure that situations of insecurity do not develop.

There is an apparent breakdown in communication, or insufficient education, as to what local communities can expect at each stage of oil exploration and production.

The governor, elected leaders, and the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum have shared roles to ensure correct, sufficient and timely community education.

Politicians equally have a role to reasonably engage in dispute resolution while at all costs avoiding negative activism.

In the case of the recent Turkana incidents the main issues were local jobs and provision of services and materials.

The Turkana issue should be an indicator of what can happen in nearly all counties (like Turkana, Elgeyo Markwet, Kitui, Kwale, Marsabit) that will be undertaking resource (oil, gas, coal, minerals) exploration and development.

This will also include those counties (including Lamu and Isiolo) that will be hosting large Lamu Port (Lapsset) technical projects. In all these cases the local communities will inevitably and rightfully be expecting local jobs and involvement in supplying services and materials.

The governors of these counties should by now have come up with definite plans and budgets to set up local polytechnics to train local artisans and technicians to handle mechanical, electrical and civil jobs (fitters, mechanics, welders, electricians, heavy equipment handling ....)

These are the persons, not graduates, that the investors on the ground immediately and urgently require. If the Turkana County cannot provide these, then the investors have no option but to hire from outside the county.

Specifically, if I were the governor of Turkana, and prior to setting up of local polytechnics, I would proactively pick tens of local Form Four school leavers and sponsor them for courses in all the available polytechnics across the country.

This way, the governor will have achieved local talent earlier than later.

Many oil investors, I am sure, will financially support the governor in such a proactive effort. We want to hear that every technical institute in Kenya is hosting and training students from Turkana among other resource counties.

Then we have the general cadre of workers required in the resource extractive industry.