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{
"id": 1511195,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1511195/?format=api",
"text_counter": 271,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Funyula, ODM",
"speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr) Ojiambo Oundo",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker. I start by also empathising and sympathising with you and the people of Luanda for the massive deaths and crimes associated with Luanda because my best moments are normally shared with a lady from Luanda. Allow me also to take this opportunity to comment on the Business Laws (Amendment) Bill. As usual, it is what we call the omnibus law that covers many Acts of legislation. The danger of a number of details being lost in many cases like these is possible, then we end up with Kenyans being saddled with laws or amendments that make their life much harder than they thought. I want to comment on the amendments to the Banking Act. I will pick up from where the Ambassador has been prosecuting the case. One aspect of life that has destroyed businesses, families and individuals is the case of loans that we take from the so-called hawkers. I will call them hawkers. They entice you with very sweet words while you do not know what is in the details. As you always say, there is always a joke that they send the most petite lady or girl to entice you to take the loan. But the moment you have trouble and want to take action, they will send the meanest-looking man: a bouncer. By the time you leave to call the petite lady, she is not reachable, has probably changed her complexion, and is not the lady you looked for. I want the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning to continuously tighten the regulations so that we save Kenyans. Many times, we, Members of Parliament, receive calls: \" Mheshimiwa, they have come to take away my cows. They have come and carried away my beddings, and yet I did not even know that my wife took a loan from this microfinance.\" Any organisation or individual interested in and participating in some money lending process must be regulated to the extent that I must surely know what the terms are and what I am signing for. I must be regularly updated. Many times, you think you have finished paying, then you are ambushed later that you still have a balance that has ballooned. You are told that you left a balance of Ksh10,000, which has ballooned to a huge amount after five years. I hope these amendments will go a long way in addressing these issues. I have no intentions at all, and I have never dreamed of starting a bank. None at all. My dreams cannot stretch that far. But when I was coming here, one of my constituents, a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of one of these mortgage finance companies, sent me a message that many banks and financial institutions allow for financial inclusion. If we increase the core capital, we will have big banks that will ignore the small man down there. Let us look at the Equity Bank model. When Equity Bank started, it expanded and allowed the unbankable to be bankable. Look at Fuliza's model, for example. It has allowed unbankable people to have access. In the plea, they said that Ksh10 billion in three years is practically impossible, and all we will be left with are mergers. When you merge, you will have a behemoth that will not listen to the small man. I am happy that the Committee has considered and stretched that period to several years. Why can we not have a tiered system where, for example, Tier 1 is Ksh10 billion, Tier 2 Ksh5 billion, Tier 3 Ksh1 billion, and also the lowest tier? I can even change my mind that even if I have Ksh100 million, I can start a bank only to serve my friends, probably those we meet across the other side, so we have a common understanding. This will ensure that we manage and never"
}