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{
    "id": 1503316,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1503316/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 556,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
    "speaker": null,
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to move that the Unclaimed Financial Assets (Amendment) Bill (National Assembly Bill No.15 of 2024) be now read a Second Time. Hon. Temporary Speaker, this is a very short Bill with only about four clauses. In principle, there are just about three clauses which are amending Sections 8, 28 and 45 of the Act. The principal objective of the Bill is to allow a claimant of an unclaimed financial asset the opportunity to designate a third party to pursue a claim that is being held by the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority. After its establishment, the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority was charged with the responsibility of putting together all unclaimed financial assets, including M-Pesa balances left on the phones of deceased persons, and money left in bank accounts. It is not in the interest of either the authority or the financial institutions, including insurance companies that are holding policies for deceased persons, to keep those assets. At times, the designated claimant is probably not even in town or in a position to pursue that unclaimed financial asset. For instance, the designated claimant may be a parent of the deceased person and lives far off in the rural areas, but has a son who is a lawyer in the city. That son in the city cannot even pursue that claim on behalf of the parent because he is not designated to do so. Hence, we want to open it up in such a way that the parent, who is the designated claimant, can designate the son who is a lawyer to pursue that unclaimed asset. It is never in the interest of the institutions that hold those unclaimed financial assets to keep those assets, neither is it in the interest of the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority to refuse to pay out those claims to claimants. Every other institution, especially those in the financial sector, is keen on holding financial assets. You can imagine the case of an insurance company that is supposed to pay out a policy worth tens of millions, but they know the claimant is not in a position to claim. They will never disclose that information to either the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority (UFAA) or any other designated person who would be claiming that amount. Concurrently, the UFAA knows that part of their income comes from the interest generated from the money they invest. And this money, of course, does not belong to them. It belongs to the claimants, the people who have left this money behind. Therefore, it is not in their interest to go out looking for people. I know some argue that UFAA has had a campaign"
}