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"id": 234822,
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"speaker_name": "Mr. Katuku",
"speaker_title": "The Minister for Water and Irrigation",
"speaker": {
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"legal_name": "John Mutua Katuku",
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"content": " Thank you, Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir. I rise to support this Bill. This is a very critical Bill because it is going to give the insurance industry the independence it deserves from the Treasury and any other person who may want to influence its decisions. This Bill will also give the insurance companies the authority and powers to regulate the industry. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, as we debate this important Bill, I have realised that a lot of hon. Members have developed interest in this Bill, maybe because some of them are in this business. I appeal to all hon. Members who have interest in this industry to declare their interest as they make their contributions so that we do not jeopardise a good Bill the way they did previously when we had a similar amendment which was brought by the Minister. It appears as if so many hon. Members are brokers and they have developed keen interest to protect the brokers rather than the industry, in general. So, we should be able to balance between the brokers and the insurance companies themselves. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, I was very disappointed when the House rejected the amendment which had been brought by the Minister for Finance to give insurance companies or brokers limited time within which to remit money to the insurance companies. I want to urge the Minister to re-introduce this amendment again so that we can give brokers reasonable time, if not immediately, because most Kenyans and some insurance companies have suffered in the hands of corrupt brokers who get money and do not submit it. It then becomes a legal tussle. At the end of the day, the person who suffers most is the one who has given out his money to the broker. The broker goes on to enjoy somebody else's sweat. I would want to see a situation where every stakeholder in this sector is protected. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for many years, the insurance industry has been operating at the mercy of the Treasury. Once the Advisory Board and Committee is established, it will give the Commissioner of Insurance some independence from manipulation from the Minister and any other authority. This gives the board, which will be appointed--- I am surprised by some of the contributions by some hon. Members, who seem not to have looked at Section III(b) of the Bill in terms of who is supposed to serve in the Board. It appears as if some of the hon. Members who are contributing from the Opposition side will never want to be on the Government side. When you go out there to campaign and you are elected to represent your people here, they give you the mandate to run the Government and such institutions. But it is as if you want to have the authority, and then you start sharing it with people who have not been given the mandate by Kenyans. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Section III(b), and especially part \"g\", gives the Minister the authority to appoint members to the Board outside the one shown here, for example, the Permanent Secretary and others. This provision gives the Minister the discretion to 3624 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES November 14, 2006 use the powers given to him to appoint people from outside other categories, especially the professionals. I hope the Minister will use his discretion to appoint people who will have no conflict of interest. But if he appoints people who have interest in the industry, you will find conflict of interest when decisions are being made. For example, if he appoints members of the Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) to the Board, who are also interested in this business, there will always be a conflict of interest when making decisions. Therefore, I think it is fair that we give the Minister the autonomy to appoint people to the Board who may not bring conflict of interest in decision making. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, it is also important to note that Kenyans have been suffering in between the lawyers, insurance companies and the brokers. It is high time the Minister looks at how best we can bring this suffering to an end. If somebody gets injured, he will contract the services of a lawyer to get his claims paid. However, many lawyers are paid and they do not submit the money to the claimants. Many people have suffered in the hands of these crooks, in the name of lawyers, when it comes to claims. I think it is high time we improved on this. Many people have died in the process of chasing their claims. I want to appeal to the Law Society of Kenya (LSK), the Kenya National Commission for Human Rights and the Attorney General's Office to look at such errant lawyers who keep money for people who suffer. I urge the Minister to look for ways to ensure that money in form of compensation is paid directly to the claimants. I would like to see a situation where cheques are issued directly to the claimants. If there is any agreement between such claimants and the lawyers, then the lawyers can be given the cheques directly. We would not want to see any further suffering of the claimants. We need to get rid of these malpractices. Once this Bill is enacted, I hope the Commissioner and the board will have the authority to regulate this sector better than the way it has been operated for many years. I would want to see, when we come to the Committee Stage, amendments to strengthen areas which we, as a House, think are necessary, especially those which were proposed by the Minister in the Finance Bill. We want to get more amendments on board. It will be surprising if there will be hon. Members who will propose amendments aimed at weakening this Bill rather than strengthening it in the interest of our people. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, with those few remarks, I beg to support."
}