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{
    "id": 466697,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/466697/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 294,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Langat",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 384,
        "legal_name": "Benjamin Kipkirui Langat",
        "slug": "benjamin-langat"
    },
    "content": "Development Bank operates for the purposes that we know we need as development partners; before we go all the way to China or the World Bank. We can have our own institutions across which can be of benefit to us. The other Act which is affected by this is the fines which are levied on banks due to violation of the law. During the last Parliament I was part of a Select Committee that was investigating why the Kenya Shilling was depreciating at a faster rate at some point than it had been doing. In the process, we realized that the penalties for violation of law which are in the Banking Act were slow. It said, if you violate the law, you will be fined Kshs1 million. For a bank, Kshs1 million is just money the bank gets within a day and maybe the banks violate things worth hundreds of millions. Therefore, this Act, seeks to increase the fine from Kshs1 million to Kshs5 million. It also seeks to introduce a Bill with penalties, if banks continue violating the law, that should attract a penalty. This is going to prevent the tendency of violating the prudential guidelines and the banking Act regulations and, therefore, give more confidence in the banking sector. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, the other thing which has been affected by these amendments is the Prevention of the Terrorist Act. This amendment proposes to make collections of funds in whatever way to support terrorism by way of facilities, resources mobilization knowingly, and utilization of knowledge to be a serious crime. It actually proposes to make it a 20-year jail term. In fact, in my committee, there was a debate that if somebody commits an act of terrorism or he is found guilty of planning an act of terrorism, a 20-year jail term is too punitive. In fact, some hon. Members were saying that this should be a death sentence crime because many people have been killed by terrorists. The only thing that we need to do is to ensure that it is tight so that those who are suspected should be given reasonable opportunity to explain themselves. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, those are generally the areas which have been covered by the Finance Bill."
}