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{
    "id": 871924,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/871924/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 203,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Seme, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) James Nyikal",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. May I also take this opportunity to congratulate you. You have done a great job for the country. I support the Bill. As the Memorandum of the Bill indicates, it is trying to reduce fraud and make sure that similar crimes do not become rampant and hinder business of insurance. The Bill is more far reaching than that. It introduces index-based insurance. To me, it looks doubtful. Index-based insurance, to some extent, will hinder payments that otherwise insured persons would have got unless it is now triggered by the indices that are not so far clear in the Bill. Probably, it is clear in the industry. But it looks to me like if an insurer has admitted liability, ordinarily, the insured would get their dues. It looks like when we take this direction, that will not be the case. However, there are some parts of it that I think are good for the industry. A clear definition of insurance fraud is extremely important in the industry. In some industries like health, fraud has literally made it impossible for insurance to operate and for people who deserve health cover to get it. People may think that when they defraud and get services that they should not get, or get payments that are not deserved by the service providers, they are making some gains. In fact, they are killing a service that is important. To that extent, I support the Bill. The Bill also introduces micro insurance. This is important. Like many other finance- based services, insurance has been a preserve of the rich. If we bring it to a level where people with limited resources can also get access to it, that is extremely important. But I am worried that we will have to look at it in the Committee of the whole House to see what “insurance index” means because it may take away the advantage that micro insurance brings in. I also notice that this Bill gives the commissioner a lot of powers. As it may be good, I am also concerned that the power may be too much. In most cases, what would have been done by the minister is now being given to the commissioner. That is good in terms of independence, but we also need to have some checks and balances. Again, when we come to the Committee of the whole House, we will look at that aspect. 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."
}