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{
    "id": 632424,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/632424/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 131,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Oginga",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 194,
        "legal_name": "Oburu Ngona Odinga",
        "slug": "oburu-odinga"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I take this opportunity to support this Bill. I was a Member of Parliament when the Donde Bill was introduced and when Hon. Midiwo attempted to introduce a Bill with regard to the same, I was an Assistant Minister for Finance. When the Bill came to the Floor of the House, I opposed it because we were giving banks a chance for self-regulation. The self-regulation we have been giving the banks has failed completely. Banks have refused to behave like those in the developed world. In Britain and Europe, banks usually adjust their rates according to their central bank rates as required by self-regulation discipline. Kenya is the only country where even when the economy of the country is nose-diving and growing negatively, banks are making wind-fall profits because they have a way of exploiting depositors. The gap between the deposit rate and the lending rate is very wide and it is not found in many countries in the world. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international organisations or multinational organisations have told us that if we control interest rates then we are reintroducing price controls. Money is a special commodity. We are just making regulations if we introduce controls or curb interest rates. Regulations cannot be limited to industries which have failed to comply with the principles of self-regulation. If we adjust interest rates, we will eventually have to adjust the exchange rate. This is because exchange rates are somehow linked to interest rates. There are many examples of countries that are already adjusting and controlling exchange rates. There is no crime in this Parliament eventually introducing exchange rate. However, right now, we are discussing banks, particularly multinational banks that have been misbehaving, not only in the interest rates but also in the spread to allow ordinary Kenyan access to cheap credit. When these big banks are given funds to manage, they make it very difficult for an ordinary Kenyan to manage them. However, when we leave it to our own people to manage them like in the case of the Youth 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."
}