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{
    "id": 850217,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/850217/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 522,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Rongai, KANU",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Kipruto Moi",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 2689,
        "legal_name": "Kipruto Moi",
        "slug": "kipruto-moi"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for this opportunity. I am a Member of the Departmental Committee on Trade, Industry and Cooperatives. The SACCO movement is a very important one because the SACCO sector in Kenya has experienced tremendous growth over the years. The sector has over 6,000 active SACCOs with over 14 million members. It is very big and vast sector of the economy. Besides helping to enhance financial inclusion, the cooperative movement has a lot of savings of its members to the tune of Kshs500 billion. That is a lot of money. Because of the importance attached to the movement, in 2010, SASRA was formed. It is a regulatory body that supervises and regulates the SACCO sector. The SASRA created in 2010 has pushed SACCOs to strengthen their corporate governance and also increase capital adequacy which had been a problem and resulted in failed SACCOs. Those are two important duties that SASRA carries out. Some of the challenges that have been facing SACCOs and in fact, which prompted the introduction of this 2018 Bill include, liquidity, credit information sharing, brand confusion and the need to legally protect the name “SACCO”, especially now that we have a DT-SACCO. There is also the issue of suitability tests for those who will run those SACCOS, namely, the directors and members of the board. There is also need to protect the deposits of members in those SACCOS. Before, people would just place their monies in the SACCO and pray to God to protect those monies. Now we need to legally protect those funds. That is why this Bill is before us. It is in light of those challenges that this amendment Bill was brought to Parliament. Clause 2 amends Section 27. That amendment states that any DT-SACCO must have that word “DT” as part of its name at all times which distinguishes it from other SACCOs that are non-deposit-taking. Once that has been done, no person shall be allowed to even use the word “SACCO”. None at all. Every DT-SACCO, therefore, existing before the commencement of this Bill shall be given 12 months to regularise so that it is in tandem with the law. It can have DT- SACCO as part of its name. Part of that clause states that DT-SACCOs shall notify the authorities - the authority here being SASRA - before amending its registered bylaws. Before, they would just convene an annual general meeting (AGM) and decide which bylaws to amend. Now they will have to notify SASRA that they intend to amend their registered bylaws. Clause 3 allows the Authority to determine the suitability of every person seeking office in SACCOs, whether they are CEOs, directors or board members. There must be a benchmark. A bar must be set so that SASRA can allow you because you do not have a bad reference. They may also bar a person seeking those offices because of their records. That is important because many times people have been running those SACCOs yet they have dubious records and come from dubious backgrounds. You end up having SACCOs that are formed yesterday and they close tomorrow. We do not want that. Corporate governance - which is the word I was looking for - has become a major issue following the recent collapse of banks and SACCOs. SASRA must look into those who are suitable to occupy those positions. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}