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{
    "id": 575416,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/575416/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 239,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. M’uthari",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1576,
        "legal_name": "Joseph M'eruaki M'uthari",
        "slug": "joseph-meruaki-muthari"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I rise to support this Bill. This is a very important Bill in the sense that it sets this provision for the independent administrators to take control of business, equitable distribution and liquidation among creditors in case of the insolvency of the entity concerned. It also provides the mechanism for indentifying and prosecuting managers or directors who, through their illegal actions, have contributed to insolvency. In short, this Bill is important because it obligates people to take responsibility. If people are being entrusted with responsibility for running public or private entities, they have a responsibility in case the entities fall through their actions. Like you have seen in the history of this Republic since Independence, many people who have been entrusted with companies and many entities, especially financial institutions or big companies, have messed. If those entities which have been destroyed since Independence would have survived, this country would have been better than it is today. We are in a country where people who have committed financial crime and grave crimes like destroying entities and stealing money from public entities end up being rewarded. To a large extent, Kenyans are not bothered to know where somebody gets their wealth. What they want to know is whether you have it or not. Having a law like this in place makes the people get involved. To take responsibility is good. At the moment, we have the case of Kenya Airways Limited (KQ) which is on its knees; the case of Mumias Sugar Company (MSC) and other companies which are in trouble. At the end of the day, the people who have been involved just go scot-free. They move from one job and go to a higher one or participate in elections many times. If we have strengthened laws like what is being proposed here, we have the possibility of making people who have committed these crimes take responsibility. We have had leaders coming to Kenya to learn from it. Like the recent visit by the American President, President Barack Obama comparing Kenya to South Korea in the 1960s. The Koreans and Malaysians who were coming to learn from us are far much ahead of us today. It is not just because they have the laws. Having laws is not important."
}