HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept
{
"id": 1096097,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1096097/?format=api",
"text_counter": 256,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Nairobi CWR, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Ms.) Esther Passaris",
"speaker": {
"id": 12475,
"legal_name": "Esther Passaris",
"slug": "esther-passaris"
},
"content": "As I sat and listened to the Leader of the Majority Party, I felt a bit confused. As a House, we are here to look at the interests of every citizen, whether rich or poor. I know that this Kenya Deposit Insurance (Amendment) Bill wants to raise the amount from Ksh100,000 to Kshs1 million. What is Ksh100,000 today? It is nothing. It is good that we have moved it to Ksh500,000 and it will be repayable within one month. To be quite honest, when I looked at the people that lost money, for instance the most recent case is the Imperial Bank, families were thrown apart. Even our little SACCOs of 20, 30 or 100 people have two or three million shillings that they have struggled to save hoping to buy property and, probably, send their kids to school. Can you imagine when you go to tell them that Parliament has allowed only Ksh500,000! Parliament is not able to tighten all the loopholes that lead to unscrupulous bankers operating in this country. There is no way we should have fear that if an institution is licenced and it does a huge strategic marketing plan to attract depositors, who are Kenyans and also our voters and we raise this money, it could take advantage so that you who deposits Ksh10 million will lose your Kshs9 million. Nobody should lose money. Nobody should lose money if we put the right structures, laws, and penalties in place. As Parliament we have to look at these loopholes. I think Ksh500,000 is too little if you have deposited Kshs10 million, Ksh5 million or Kshs2 million. It is too little a compensation to encourage you to save. What makes a country develop? It is savings, but not the savings under your mattress. We try to discourage that. It is eaten by termites as one of the Members said. It is about saving in financial institutions. These savings are what enables the Government itself to not compete with the private sector and be able to have money available to steer and spearhead the economy. How can bankers lend people money when there are no deposits? How can people deposit money when they know the amount of money you put in deposits will not yield any returns in case a financial institution goes down? Why should financial institutions go down if we put good structures in place, if we audit and ensure that the banks are adhering to what needs to be adhered to? For me, I really feel it will be shameful if this Bill does not see the light of day considering how long it has taken Hon. Dawood to work on it. We also need to understand that the more savings a country has, the more a country is able to spearhead all the lending that leads to private sector growth. Government is not in the business of doing business; government is in the business of facilitating businesses. We facilitate businesses by encouraging savings. The more a country saves, the more it has to lend. The more a country has to lend, the more you have investor confidence and businesses all over the place. America is great today not because they are very rich but because of the middle class. For the middle class to access money, banks have to have surplus money. And for banks to have surplus money, there have to be savings. For people to save with banks, they have to feel that their government is not only securing the minimum amount of Ksh1 million, which is what Hon. Dawood wanted to do, but it also secures the structures to prevent collapse of banks. I was saving with Chase Bank, which is now SBM Bank. After all the restructuring and boardroom discussions that they had, where everybody obviously had something to make, we were told we had no choice: whatever deposits we had, we had to agree to be paid that money over a period of time. That was better than losing it all as the Imperial Bank depositors did. So, I honestly commend my brother for his effort and encourage him not to give up. At the end of the day, we are here to represent people and they should not lose money when they save with any financial institution in this country. Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}