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"speaker_name": "Mr. Kimunya",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Finance",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. Let me start by thanking hon. Members who have contributed this afternoon. One thing that is very clear is that we are all agreed, or so I heard, that we all require a law on money laundering. We require a law on how to handle the proceeds of crime and the issue is whether the Bill we have is what will provide that avenue in the best way. Like I said while moving this Bill, we are convinced from our own end that we have done our best in capturing the best practices, lessons learnt elsewhere, consultations that have taken place over a number of years involving several stakeholders and we have come up with this proposed law which we think is what will provide a solution to Kenyans. The other issue I want to respond to is on whether the law is home-grown or not. As I said, we started with a national taskforce in the year 2003. We held several workshops in the year 2003, 2004 and 2007 involving Committees of this House and experts. Basically, the whole idea was to come up with a Kenyan law to sort out this international menace. The fact that it is in the national Parliament, and we are discussing it here, there is no other place to domesticate a law, except here. We could have as well issued guidelines and started regulations and float them out there. However, those would not be home-grown. The fact that we are discussing it here, and it will come out of this place as part of the Laws of Kenya, that is what we call home grown solutions to our own problems. I believe that what we are doing now is getting to have national ownership of it. I would like to urge hon. Members to look at it, from that angle. Let me also confirm that we are not doing it, and certainly I have no instructions to do it as a conditionality from any of our development partners. We are doing it because we believe it is in the best interest of this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I believe that another issue that is bringing confusion, which Mr. Abdikadir brought up, is that this law seems to have a resemblance to the American law. To me, that is not a problem. Its genesis is obviously not! It did not emanate from the American law. It has emanated from the need, at the international level, for all of us to work together to control money laundering and all those criminal activities. As a country, we have, like I said, signed up several conventions and protocols, to be part of the global community that is saying no to this issue. The fact that America and other countries have their laws, we should be proud that we are also bench-marking ourselves with the best in the world and saying that we are also right to have a law that says what we need to do in this country. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, when I look at the harmony in terms of other laws and situations, what amuses me is that, obviously, when something is good for us, we are happy to say that we want to be like America or Britain. For instance, when we were discussing the National Accord and Reconciliation Act, we were all very happy to say that this country requires a Prime Minister and a parliamentary system like the one in the United Kingdom and a welfare system like the one we have in Scandinavia. However, when it comes to some of the laws, we say that they should apply to America and not Kenya. There are things that have happened in other countries that can be used here. We do not need to re-invent wheels or necessarily copy anything, but keep a pace with what is in tandem with the rest of the world. In terms of the other issues that arose, I think it is an issue of confusion. I do not know why this law is being confused or cross-referenced with the Anti-Terrorism Law because we are talking about money laundering and how we should handle the proceeds of crime. Whether the money comes from prostitution rings or whether it comes from financing undesirable activities like 956 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES May 8, 2008 terrorism, to me, the issue is to confirm to this House that in drafting this law and bringing it to this House, there is no specific group that is targeted. Certainly, we are not targeting any specific religion or any groups of people. We are talking about crime and not religions. I believe that all the religions; Islam, Christianity or traditional African religions, do not encourage the kind of criminal activities we are saying give rise to money laundering. I want us to have it on record that we are looking at the crime and targeting how we can fight it within the competence of this House. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I believe that those are the main issues that needed clarification. As I said, there is a lot to be done in terms of discussion in the Committee. I also just want to confirm to hon. Members, who may not have had the opportunity to go through the Bill and discuss it in detail today, or who would like to have more time, that they will have an opportunity to give their views, comments and recommendations as to amendments during the Committee discussion. So, again, having agreed that we need a law to build a good economy using good money, let us take our time to discuss among ourselves. Let us discuss within the Committees, and let us come up with a law that will help this country into the future in terms of protecting our financial markets and turning our country into a financial hub for this region. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we are on our way to getting there. All we need is the enabling legislation, so that anyone dealing with Kenya can know that when they put their money in Kenya, it will not be contaminated. When they move around with their money, at least, they will be working within an environment that can protect them. That way, we will ensure sustainability and dependability in terms of the quality of investments. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I could go on and on, but since the House has been very generous, I would just want to urge those hon. Members who are not yet convinced, and feel that they have strong views on the Bill, to use the avenue created by the House within the Committee hearings to remove whatever they are uncomfortable with. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water. Let us clean the baby, bring it back and nurture it. Let us say, \"We have done this to create the environment for investment and for the financial sector to grow\". Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those words, I wish to thank the House and hon. Members once again for taking the Bill through this crucial stage. I beg to move."
}