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{
    "id": 34165,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/34165/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 447,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mr. Lekuton",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 66,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton",
        "slug": "joseph-lekuton"
    },
    "content": "Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to move that the Unclaimed Financial Assets Bill be now read a Second Time. I will be very brief because many hon. Members have read this Bill and do understand it. I would like to start by thanking my fellow Members of Parliament, the stakeholders, the media and members of the public for being very supportive of the Unclaimed Financial Assets Bill, 2011. I have consulted widely with members of the public, friends and various stakeholders on this Bill. I am glad to say that it is getting a lot of support all over the country. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, this Bill is very important for this country. It is very important for the poor people. It is very good for the uninformed members of the public who have money, but have no idea where their money is. A functioning financial system is extremely good and for the economic development of a nation. In recent years, the Kenya financial sector has been very powerful and has improved tremendously. It has witnessed a lot of profits. This is a welcome move considering that we are doing well when the rest of the world is not doing that well. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, Vision 2030 clearly rests its case on the financial sector to improve the economy of this country. However, we need to improve the financial sector on some issues, and specifically on the issue of unclaimed financial assets, which is very crucial, as I said earlier, to the poor people of our country. We have savings and deposit institutions, banks, brokerage firms and pension schemes, which hold a lot of money that is unclaimed. It may belong to an old woman somewhere in the middle of this country, somebody somewhere in the United States of America (USA), Ikolomani, Laisamis and in the whole of the country. If we really have to live by the Constitution that we created--- Most of our laws are pegged on international law. This Bill conforms to the very issue that we believe in and is of international standard. Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, international best practices include the management of information that we need to know. It will help us to know how much money we have and how much money banks and pension schemes have. It is only ethical for the banks to report how much money they have. After three or four years, depending on their category, they will report on this money to a special fund that will be created by the Bill. Members of the public will continue seeing if their money is there after getting extensive information through radio, newspapers and other media. The good thing about this Bill is that the people of this country will have access to their money for hundreds and hundreds of years as opposed to now, when after three to four years, that money is gone."
}