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{
    "id": 570502,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/570502/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 182,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kajwang’",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2712,
        "legal_name": "Tom Joseph Kajwang'",
        "slug": "kajwang-tom-joseph-francis"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me an opportunity to contribute to the Companies Bill, 2015. I am a Member of the Committee that has burnt the midnight oil to come up with the revised Bill before the House. You remember that the first Bill that was before us was twice the volume of this. We had to sit down and scrutinize clause by clause to understand the policies that were guiding the legislative proposals. After about three months, we have crashed the over 2,000 pages into a mere 1,600 or so pages. I want to congratulate my colleagues with whom we spent time on this matter. This is the cream of the National Assembly. This is what separates this Parliament from the other parliaments. I have heard discussions that the quality of legislation in this Parliament is lower than it used to be in the other parliaments. However, you can now see the difference. To those of us who keep on saying “we were in the Tenth Parliament which was better than this Parliament,” this is the Parliament that they are in. This is the quality of legislation we are churning out. This is the cream of what we are doing. My colleague and learned friend, Hon. Baiya, has said that development of this Bill began in the other Parliament. However, it is this Parliament that has been able to sit down to develop all those thousands of reflections into this Bill. Therefore, we should congratulate ourselves for being in a position where we can now push legislative practice in company law to what it is. The first thing that you see in this Bill is that it ushers in a paradigm shift in our company jurisprudence. Every law, accounts or company business practice student will begin to understand the philosophy of what a company is. What we were used to was a legislative practice that was largely Commonwealth, particularly English practice. However, what we now have is a hybrid of the practice in UK, Australia, Africa and particularly, Kenya. So, for the first time, students of law in the academia world, even before we begin the trade, will now have a change in curriculum from what the law professors used to teach into a new one which has been championed by the Legislature. This is very good because it is the Legislature that is driving even the agenda of the academia in terms of what it is that students learn. So, there will be a new paradigm shift. It will cause lecturers to go back to school. Professors will again have to start learning what company law is to be able to give instructions to students. What I like about this Bill is that it is based on creating efficiency and swiftness in doing business in Kenya. Before, someone who wanted to do business would have to go and register a business name and perhaps register a company. You would look for a lawyer or some quacks running around Harambee Avenue and spend a lot of money just to register and have a company. 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."
}