Entry Instance

HTTP 200 OK
Allow: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS
Content-Type: application/json
Vary: Accept

{
    "id": 862709,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/862709/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 378,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kipkelion East, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Joseph Limo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1915,
        "legal_name": "Joseph Kirui Limo",
        "slug": "joseph-kirui-limo"
    },
    "content": " Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I beg to second. This is a very important amendment Bill to the Capital Markets Authority Act. What is important in any country is investor confidence, which is a cornerstone for any economy to grow. For it to happen, the Government must do one or two things to ensure that the market is properly regulated and investors are fully protected. The Bill has been well explained by the Leader of the Majority Party. I will not repeat what he has said. It is the intention of the Bill to bring a lot of sanity to the capital markets, especially on issues involving officers and staff who misuse prior information of a customer who has ordered a certain number of shares and go ahead to purchase from the market and thereafter offload the same to the investor. Therefore, that is an abuse of prior information. This Bill has addressed that so that in future, no one will abuse that. If, indeed they do it, then there is repercussion which has been provided for by the Bill. This Bill also brings in more staff. Previously, key personnel were limited to the CEOs and the rest. But this Bill is expanding the definition of “key personnel” in order to include individuals undertaking a critical role like preparing the financial statement of listed companies. Those particular individuals normally, through access to these financial statements, can easily know what is happening. Other staff especially who play a central role in oversight and assessment of internal controls have also been brought in. That means it will need good internal auditors in these companies because they access privileged information which cannot be accessed by other people in a normal situation. This Bill, once it was tabled in this House, was brought to the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning and we went ahead as per Article 118 of the Constitution to conduct public participation. This Bill was advertised on 6th July 2018. Subsequently, we received memoranda and held public participation on Thursday 9th August 2018. We had people like Kipkenda & Co. Advocates, an individual by the name Erick Okoth and of course the National Treasury together with Capital Markets Authority. The inputs which were given to us during public participation has helped in coming up with some amendments which we will be moving in the Committee of the whole House and it will make the Bill much better than it is now. So that I allow Members to contribute to this Bill, I want to end by saying that given that this Bill is for the purpose of protecting investors, it is a very important Bill. As we are talking now, this country needs a lot of investors. We have had counties going round the world looking for investors. Other than looking for investors outside Kenya, there are many investors who are in our counties but in most cases, they do not have confidence. Therefore, they do not want to invest freely because they are not assured but by strengthening our legal framework, by amending existing and even introducing other laws to protect investors, it is one way of preparing the country for a big shift from the current growth which is still one digit to two digits. We want to encourage our county governments to tap from local investors so that people can move small companies to the level where they would be listed and they will be governed by the laws which we are making. With those many remarks, I second this Bill. I encourage Members of this National Assembly to support this Bill."
}