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{
    "id": 419073,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/419073/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 116,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Gikaria",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2489,
        "legal_name": "David Gikaria",
        "slug": "david-gikaria"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, as hon. Injendi has just said, it is true. Only one case was prosecuted and a fine of Kshs50,000 was given to the Government. Nothing else has ever been paid. It is true that the proceeds from court fines would not benefit the victims. It is also true again that investigation was done and 11 cases taken to court. All of them were completed without any conviction. In fact, a few of them were even compensation by the same courts. As regards compensation, the Cabinet Secretary indicated that it is not a viable venture. The Government has no money to compensate the victims. One of the reasons given by the Attorney-General is that most of the victims did not come out because they were afraid that if they went to court, they would be asked to pay for legal services and yet, they did not have the money. The Attorney-General said that under the Banking Fraud Department, their issues would have been taken for free. However, nobody came forth to make claim. That was, again, the dilemma of the Attorney-General despite making efforts to try and tell people to come forward and make claims. As regards the Bill, as hon. Gichigi has said, a number of Bills have already been enacted. There is a Bill which was enacted in 2009 after these issues came up. The Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act is in place. The Bill was brought to Parliament in 2008 and became law in 2009. So, something has been done as regards proceeds from money received using crime. On the issue of the frozen money, in the Report, it is indicated that Kshs5 billion had been frozen within the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). What the CBK Governor told us is that the CBK does not hold depositors’ money. That is the responsibility of commercial banks. When we raised the issue with the CBK since they are the watchmen of the commercial banks, it was indicated that nothing was ever frozen other than the Kshs.11 million. We sought clarification from hon. Nyenze who was the Chairman of the taskforce then, to tell us in which account the Kshs5 billion that had been indicated as having been from pyramid schemes was put. He did not have any specific details. They never had any facts to be able to indicate where. So, as far as the Ministry was concerned, the amount of money that was frozen was not Kshs5 billion as indicated but only Kshs11 million. One of the problems that the commercial banks had is that the victims were third parties. They are not known to the bank. However, the holders of the accounts, who were the directors of the companies, were the ones who were taking the money. They were the only people who were able to transact business on those accounts. Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker."
}