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{
    "id": 465281,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/465281/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 240,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Langat",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 384,
        "legal_name": "Benjamin Kipkirui Langat",
        "slug": "benjamin-langat"
    },
    "content": "Hon. Deputy Speaker, I wish you could do that to many of the Members who are consulting loudly because making law is the main business of this House. It is unfortunate that Members start to walk out when we start the main business of this House. These are fairly small amendments to the current Insurance Act. They have been forwarded to this House by the Cabinet Secretary in charge of the National Treasury pursuant to the 2013/2014 Budget, so that this sector can be further reformed to ensure that it grows and the public gets confidence in our insurance sector. One of the things that this Bill seeks to achieve is to ensure that insurance supervision is clearer through the Insurance Regulatory Authority. That is one of the reasons for these amendments. The other major issue that these amendments seek to achieve is to place Kenya in the East African market where, in the past, the law used to look at Kenya as an island. You realise that as we go, Kenya has become more regionalised and we are talking about the East African Community. We are talking about other regional markets. So, one of the issues that have come up is the EAC Common Market Protocol which the insurance sector must comply with in terms of the ownership of those companies. That Protocol requires that the people of EAC, from Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, should be able to come to Kenya and invest in our insurance sector without necesssarily being termed as foreigners. The East Africans are brothers. Therefore, these amendments seek to give recognition to the fact that our brothers from Uganda or Tanzania can team up with Kenyans without necessarily being referred to as foreigners and build better and bigger insurance companies. This Bill seeks to allow easy cross-border trading of insurance policies. It seeks to expand the insurance market to Uganda, Tanzania and other investors. The amendments in part say that the ownership is not limited to Kenyans only. It can be EAC and beyond. The other issue that is being clearly recognized is compensation of policy holders. Just like we have deposit protection for the banking sector, there is also more recognition of the Policy Holders Compensation Fund, so that those who have policies are protected. We have insurance companies collapsing with people’s policies. One of them was United Insurance and the people who had policies and investment schemes lost. This Bill seeks to recognise further that we can enhance the protection of policy holders, so that, in the event that the insurance companies collapse, the Policy Holders Compensation Fund can compensate the holders, even if it is not 100 per cent. At least, somebody will have 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."
}