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{
    "id": 579052,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/579052/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 133,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Ichung’wah",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1835,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Kimani Ichung'Wah",
        "slug": "anthony-kimani-ichungwah"
    },
    "content": "people, including those from hon. John Mbadi’s constituency in Suba, are still to a large extent depending on kerosene stoves. A huge number of our rural population depend on firewood, including our own schools. As Members of Parliament, we know the challenges we encounter in our schools when trying to get firewood. We must encourage our people to change to cooking gas, which is green energy that is not detrimental to the environment and the health of our people. I will, therefore, propose amendments that will touch on Value Added Tax (VAT) on gas cylinders. It is also very important to look at the question of who refills gas cylinders. This is because in the past, the big multinationals operating in this country have monopolised this industry and they operate in a cartel-like arrangement. Because of the cost of gas cylinders, people are not able to refill. There are very many independent refillers of gas cylinders who can refill even those gas cylinders of the multinationals. If they were allowed to refill all gas cylinders, I believe this would again create better competition in the industry and bring the price of cooking gas down. If you go to the part on the Insurance Act, there are proposals to bring regulations that will make the Commissioner of Insurance take the function of doing regulations away from the Cabinet Secretary (CS). As with all other departments in this country, it is the CS who should be gazetting regulations. Again, I will move an amendment to that effect so that we remove the proposal to give the Commissioner of Insurance powers to do regulations in the insurance industry and give them to the CS. On page 1927 of the Bill there is a proposal which says: “The Minister may, by notice in the Gazette, prescribe rules for the better carrying out of the provisions of this section.” Again, I want to point out to this House that this is, indeed, very mischievous. Chair of the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning and Trade, this may be something that you can look at as a Committee at the Committee Stage. It is mischievous to the extent that the use of the word “rules” instead of “regulations” is probably designed to ensure that you circumvent the issue of the regulations having to come to this House to have the force of law. Therefore, I may want to bring an amendment to change that from the word “rules” to “regulations,” so that we ensure that we are not only consistent in how we gazette regulations but also make sure that any regulations that have the effect of law come to this House for ratification. I have heard the new Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor speak on the issue of doubling, or increasing the minimum, capital for commercial banks. Again, as important as this may be, probably the banking sector in this country is one of the best regulated. I heard the CBK Governor speak against increment of this minimum capital for banks. In the interest of ensuring that our unbanked population is banked, we must encourage the growth of small banks. If we were to double the minimum capital for all commercial banks, we would be driving further away the unbanked population from banking services. I will beg to look at the insurance industry again because it is one of the most sensitive in the financial sector. Insurance companies are the ones that require a heavy capital investment because of their inability at times to settle claims. I will again look for an opportunity to move an amendment to maintain the capital base of commercial banks where it is, and increase the capital base of insurance companies. If you are in the insurance industry, you must be clear whether you want to operate as an underwriter, an agent or a broker. We should not have a situation where agents and brokers in this country are midwifed as brokers and agents in preparation to getting into the industry as underwriters. This is the situation; having worked in the insurance industry, I know that brokers and agents in this 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."
}