Entry Instance

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

{
    "id": 928814,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/928814/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 86,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Baringo North, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. William Cheptumo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 50,
        "legal_name": "William Cheptumo Kipkiror",
        "slug": "william-kipkiror"
    },
    "content": "few. I do not want to repeat that. That is the first challenge that we have with this Bill. It is also what the President raised in his memorandum when he returned the Bill back to the House. The same comments were raised by ICPAK, by Anjarwalla and Khanna Advocates, in the submissions by James Nabangi and finally, by APSEA. Taking into account all these views by the stakeholders who made their presentations during the public participation, the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs made the following decision. Let me mention what the Attorney-General said. He gave his view and said that the Bill does not adhere to the established protocols for the establishment of State corporations. The National Treasury and the State Corporations Advisory Committee were not consulted. The level of consultation when the Bill was being passed again by Hon. Wamalwa was not thorough. The issue was that the conduct of directors of boards in Kenya is already legally regulated by other statutory bodies such as the CMA and the Companies Act. That is why even though the Committee accepted and recognised the efforts made by Hon. Wamalwa, we decided that we do not want to legislate in vain. Unless some of these areas are addressed by the Mover of the Bill, the Committee found it not advisable to support the Bill. We plead with the House that even as we come up with Bills, it is important to consult widely. Look at the relevant statutes that can easily address the issues that you want to raise or the mischief you want to deal with in the Bills, so that we do not have laws that overlap and are already taken into account in our various existing legislations. Part IV of our Report, which is on Page 25, outlines the reasons why we felt that the Bill should not be passed. It should be rejected entirely by the House for the reasons that I have said. That is not to say that the ideas raised by Hon. Wamalwa and Hon. Ochieng’, having been the original Mover of this Bill, are not relevant. Even in State corporations, it is required that the directors are supposed to be trained and undertake their functions and perform their duties in a professional manner. In conclusion, we are dealing with both directors of State corporations and those of private companies. If this law was to deal with directors of private companies, it would be very prudent because there is no specific legislation to regulate the functions of directors of private companies and the way they do their businesses. In private companies, directors do their businesses without any regulation. That could be the area to pursue. Where there is a conflict between the State Corporations Act in terms of how directors should work and private companies, that is where the divergent position arises. There is no problem if the House passes this Bill because this is still a House of debate and procedure. We have no problem with that, but I have a responsibility as the Chair of this Committee to advise the House on the outcome of the public participation and the legal position. I believe we still have to do something about directors of private companies who are left without any regulations. I appreciate my colleague. That is the reason the Committee felt that this Bill should not be passed by the House. If it takes the direction of directors of private companies, there is justification to have a Bill to regulate those directors."
}