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Article

19 May 2018

Author:
Gilbert Makore (Extractives adviser for Oxfam in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania), in Daily Nation (Kenya)

Kenya: Oxfam urges govt. to pass legislation on disclosure of oil contracts to avoid conflicts

"Disclose petroleum contracts to avoid dreaded oil resource curse"

As Kenya inches closer to reaching First Oil, projected to be in 2022, it is not a certainty that it will fully benefit from it. Its legal, policy, institutional and practice frameworks must be optimal. A good regulatory framework would ensure that it leverages its oil for broad-based development while averting a ‘resource curse’, which has plagued many resource-rich countries. Conditions for perpetual conflict and corruption emerge from a weak framework for managing oil resources and the windfall revenues they occasion...

As the rightful owners of petroleum resources, it is important for citizens to know the conditions under which their resources are being traded and exploited. Kenya has already made important commitments in this regard. Following a visit by then-United States President Barack Obama in 2015, the government publicly committed to developing a policy framework for transparent licensing and publication of contracts. A member of the Open Government Partnership, in its 2016 Action Plan, it committed to disclose contractual information and revenues derived from the oil and gas industry by May 2018. But that has not been matched by changes in practice. It is not clear what the obstacles are for the government to not follow through on its commitment, given that even oil companies and financiers have explicitly stated that they are in support of contract disclosure...

Kenya’s opportunity to show leadership in East Africa’s growing  extractive sector would be presented by the passing of the Petroleum Bill and regulations with explicit provisions for disclosure of contracts, as well as and retrospective application. Notably, however, there is no legal or policy impediment to disclosure of petroleum agreements — even in the absence of enabling petroleum legislation.