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"speaker_name": "Hon. Ochieng",
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"content": "company you are managing, we will look at your conduct in the way and manner in which you do these things. Although it is not provided expressly in this Bill, we are saying that if the Government of the day thinks that the membership of the Institute helps encourage good governance, then the Government may be encouraged, as they staff boards of parastatals, to have recourse to the members of the Institute. It is not a requirement, but it will encourage good governance in public entities. Of course, I realise that if we provide that they must be from that Institute, then it would unduly restrict the appointing authority in terms of where they can get people from. Once these people are appointed, it would be in good taste and sense that they go through proper training. What happens today is that if you are appointed to a board of any public entity, the first or second week, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of that board takes you for something called an induction. During that period, probably in Mombasa or somewhere else, you are taken through by the CEO and his management team on what the company does, how it operates and what it has been doing all this time. The information given to you depends on how much the management thinks you should know. Through the Institute, we will take members of public institutions and entities who think this Institute can help them through a wide range of things that will help them manage public entities, public listed companies and even your own family companies, if you so choose. This will ensure that the companies are managed in a manner that promotes stability, sustainability and integrity. This Bill sets out how one will behave after being registered as a member of the Institute. It also sets out how we can cancel your membership if you do not behave well. The board consists of a chairman and 10 members. Membership is voluntary, but once you get in, the rules are set and you must meet the code of conduct. A committee will be set up under the board to vet members before they register with the Institute. This Institute will set qualifications of the members of the Institute. It is going to broadly allow anybody in the country, be it a university or college, to train people based on an agreed curriculum on corporate and good governance and how to manage companies. Anybody can train and have common exams. We can have continuous education in this area being run as set out by the Institute. I have talked about discipline. I have also talked about how we will ensure that the provisions of this Bill are implemented by providing for penalties and enforcement mechanism under the Bill. As I finish, it will be important for the Government of Kenya to look into this. As you know, when this Government came in, there was a task force that was set up to do a couple of things. One was to see how we can reduce the number of our parastatals in this country, make them efficient and professionalise the appointment of directors to these companies. As you can imagine, with competing political interests and the need to take in a number of people in the Government, this never happened. There was a taskforce led by a gentleman called Mr. Awuondo and co-chaired by Hon. Abdikadir, a former Member of this Parliament. They gave their report which was all over the newspapers and we were waiting for a Bill on this Floor, but it never happened because like I have said, the exigencies of the day probably convinced somebody that we do not need to reduce the number of members in the boards. So, it happened that way. This Bill will still further those functions by, at least, ensuring that our public entities are run in an efficient, competent and profitable manner. So, I request Members to support this Bill 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."
}