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{
    "id": 389504,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/389504/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 177,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Ms.) Wahome",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1700,
        "legal_name": "Alice Muthoni Wahome",
        "slug": "alice-muthoni-wahome"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, hon. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to support this Bill. I want to add my voice to those who have said that what happened in this country in the 1990s was an economic depression, in my view. It is very much like what happened in the USA. Currently having about 20 institutions that have gone under, with no prospects of funds being paid back to the depositors, surely; we should look back and see how many businesses went under. People got sick. For sure, the economy of this country was largely affected by the disappearance of depositors’ funds largely due to mismanagement. Some of my colleagues have indicated that what actually happened was theft of depositors’ money. We know that the directors of the affected institutions were involved in some of the very bad cases where banks collapsed. Attempts to take them through the judicial process were made but very few of the culprits were held liable for criminal offences and even in terms of refunding the money. It is clear that in many cases, there was diverting of funds that were deposited in those institutions by those who were entrusted with the deposits and, therefore, the designers of these amendments bring in very healthy provisions to assist in the regulation and oversight of the institutions that are entrusted by very innocent Kenyans who are willing to save and are working very hard. Many times, it is not the big bankers that suffer the losses. It is the ordinary depositor who does not even get the early warning signal that something is going wrong. Therefore, if this Bill will introduce strong provisions for oversight and give penalties where need be, and ensure that the security of deposits and their funds are recoverable--- Hon. Speaker, we note that there are provisions that are being introduced to look into the receivership processes. We know that in this country, once an institution is put under liquidation processes, other emerging scenarios occur and it now becomes another cash cow for some people. Properties for institutions under receivership are grossly undervalued and even recovering assets to get sufficient funds to repay does not happen. Depositors innocently wait for the sale of some of those assets but what they get are deficits. It is not because the assets are not valuable, but it is because there is collusion and fraud. This continues to happen and we must speak out. We must send out messages even as we hear that there are, at least, 20 institutions that are under the Deposit Protection Fund. What is happening there should be checked properly so that the depositors who have waited for more than 20 years are repaid. Some of them have died. Others have dropped from schools and many families are still waiting for the fund to repay them. We need to ensure that the introduction of this will root out some those bad practices that continue to take place unabated. 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."
}