Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 1278831,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1278831/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 232,
    "type": "other",
    "speaker_name": "",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I rise to support this omnibus Bill. I have a bit of reservation about this particular Bill. Kenya is not a rich country. Also, we cannot say we are poor, but we are somewhere at the levels of the world’s economy. The intention of this Bill is good. The title of this Bill is Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing. What we do not want this Bill to do is create rafts of bureaucracies so that people do not invest in Kenya. The talk out there is that people would rather put their monies in Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda for obvious reasons. Kenya is borrowing from wealthy countries in the West. The idea is to stem the flow of funds into this country. This Bill establishes a baseline for prudence and financial discipline in the Kenyan financial sector and, to that extent, the economy. Our worry is: how much is the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) paying our police officers to ensure financial prudence and discipline? How much are they doing to achieve that? The issue of bitcoins is one such interesting thing that has recently happened. Individuals can come to Kenya, set up shops somewhere and swill so much money. This Bill will provide a safeguard against such actions. The issue of terrorism cannot fly without proper and regulated financing in this economy. There are cases where money is laundered by opening front shops. A lot of money is ploughed through companies or individuals. I see within this Bill a foreign limited liability partnership. It means a foreign entity wishing to set up a business in Kenya can use a local representative. We must go beyond that. We need to ensure that we deal with established individuals with addresses and companies carrying out day-to-day transactions as entities. They must be involved in growing the economy. It must not be individuals who can engage in nefarious activities. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I also like that this bill attempted to identify proliferation. The previous Bill had not done this for its users or other laws. I think proliferation will help the police, watchdogs of our economy, and the financial sector to find out that stockpiling particular materials or goods may be a criminal activity. There is also a new definition of tangible and intangible funds. This is where Hon. KJ and his committee come in. We have seen people buying buildings, cars, and throwing cash around. Billions of monies are being transacted virtually, much more than what we spend in shops and supermarkets using smartcards. As an omnibus, this Bill should have contained itself within the frame of anti-money laundering and countering terrorism instead of bringing in something like insurance on board. 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."
}