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{
    "id": 389486,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/389486/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 159,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. A.T. Anyanga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1321,
        "legal_name": "Andrew Toboso Anyanga",
        "slug": "andrew-toboso-anyanga"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker. I stand to support the Bill. As a country since the year 2008, we have taken a very aggressive path of achieving Vision 2030. One of the key pillars of Vision 2030 is the economic pillar where the financial services constitute a very strong flagship project under the economic pillar. Hon. Speaker, Sir, going per the history of this country and I being one of the victims of financial institutions that went under with our deposits, it is important to look at this Bill keenly. I remember in the year 1997, hardly two years after my graduation, I was a very young graduate, not really well off with some little deposits, trusting one institution called the Kenya Finance Bank which actually went under with my entire savings. I strongly believe that it is time to regulate and strengthen financial institutions to build trust and confidence among the depositors. Hon. Speaker, Sir, if you look at economies which have been growing based on service delivery or provision of services globally, and particularly financial services - I am looking at economies like Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland, most of these countries have very strong legislations that protect the deposits, especially in financial institutions. The Chair is aware that one of the challenges that we have had in this country is mobilization of deposits. As a country, I think, we are just doing about 13 per cent and that is not good for the growth of this economy. We have had big economies like the USA as one big example, because of lack of proper regulation of their financial services, they have had to go under through the well known global financial crises. Therefore, learning from such kind of global and local lessons, I think this Bill will then encourage Kenyans. Of course, if you do not do that, they will have other alternatives which is either getting the money out of the country or saving it in other unconventional ways like keeping money under mattresses. As you are aware, just two months ago, for purposes of hon. Members who may not have read this, a Chinese national lost about two million of her savings because rats and other animals that feed on money gained access to the mattress where this money had been kept and this actually wiped out her entire life savings; the equivalent of Kshs2 million. Probably there are such cases in this country only that they do not get reported in the media. My point here is that, if we give Kenyans an opportunity to save their money and be sure that their money will be safe when they need it, then everybody will develop this culture of saving, which indeed should be a culture that should be encouraged right from the time children start going to school up to the time people retire. The other thing which I wanted to mention is the whole idea of the Government sometimes being under pressure to borrow. Trying to borrow from the local market is, of course, a safer route for the Government to take, than going to international institutions that give us very stringent rules. Indeed, one of the ways that we could also regulate the kind of interest Kenyans can make when they borrow is to have enough pool of domestic The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}