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{
    "id": 1495585,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1495585/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 469,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Ojiambo Oundo",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": "I did not go to law school, but I attended enough units in law. I can read and interpret any judgment. That is why we, in the Committee, insisted that we must account for whatever comment we were given, be it verbal or a written memorandum. We state when we are accommodating any comment. If we are rejecting a comment or representation, we clearly say that we are rejecting for X, Y, Z reasons. It was for abundance of caution because the decision by the Court of Appeal in respect to the Finance Bill of 2023 was prevailing. For my good friend, I am referring to the Supreme Court ruling on the Finance Bill of 2023.There are four things that came out very clear and the members of the public were categorical and applied their minds to it. The first was registration. Who registers a cooperative society? That became a very robustly debated and conversed issue. The second was governance issues. How many terms can a director hold? How many years can one remain a director? Can a director remain for life just because they have muscles? When we were in Kericho, during public participation, all the directors were fairly aged senior citizens. When we asked one of the young ladies, she said in their society, traditions and culture cannot allow her to contest against an elder. So, the elders will have to remain directors forever. The question was, what can we do to remedy this so that we can bring in new blood in the cooperative movement? It became a contentious issue. I do not want to speak on what the Committee has proposed because that is the work of the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson. The third issue was on remittance where an employer deducts your money and does not remit or delays to remit. What remedy or recourse does a co-operator have in respect of this matter? What if you expected your shares or deposits to have increased? You go to apply for a loan expecting your employer has been remitting for the last one year. You expect Ksh60,000 or Ksh100,000 deposits, only to be told the last time any deposit or remittance was received was about three years ago. Therefore, your shares and deposit can only warrant you Ksh20,000. This is the case and yet, you have an emergency that requires Ksh50,000. That became a very contentious issue. The fourth issue was supervision. Who supervises? Who takes remedial action whenever there is a problem? Of course, after all that public participation, there was a residual matter that remained. As we write thesis, proposals and projects in areas of further studies, we need to professionalise this sector. As at the moment, we have no professional body. So, how do we professionalise the sector? That is why we said we deal with what we have now. As we move forward, we will deal with the rest. I support and beseech my colleagues to also support this Bill. Let us converse with the Committee. Thank you."
}