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{
    "id": 953020,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/953020/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 50,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiambu, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Jude Njomo",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1784,
        "legal_name": "Jude L. Kangethe Njomo",
        "slug": "jude-l-kangethe-njomo"
    },
    "content": "of Kenya. It is supporting the businesspeople of Kenya to do business. Members can see how our greedy banks want to suck every profit our businesspeople make from their businesses. It has come out very clearly that the argument the banks and the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA), including the National Treasury, have been putting forward is that the introduction of capping is restricting credit or making credit unavailable to our Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). That is happening, but it is not the capping that is making credit not available to SMEs. It is the banks which sat down somewhere one evening and decided to arm-twist the Government. The only way they can arm-twist the Government is by withholding credit from mwananchi, so that it affects our economy. Thus, the Government will be forced to look for ways and means of making this House change this law. We called that State capture when we were discussing this. We are not going to allow this House to be used by businesspeople and business institutions to make rules that are going to benefit their businesses to the detriment of Wanjiku and the wananchi who sent us here. We remember very well that a law was brought here because there was over Kshs255 billion in banks whose owners are deceased and their relatives do not know about it. We enacted a law to protect that kind of money and every bank was supposed to collect details of the next of kin. This was taken to court because banks do not want to do clean business. They want to retain money of the deceased, so that they can make profits with it without involving their relatives. They went to court and that was brushed aside. I also remember that when we were debating the Finance Bill last year, the Kenya Bankers Association pleaded with this House to, at least, remove the interest cap, so that a customer would negotiate with a bank on the interest to be charged when one deposits money in it. They persuaded us that by removing the interest cap, they would have enough capital to give more money to SMEs. It is over one year and we have not seen any difference in the amount of money they are lending to SMEs. The banks were not sincere with this Parliament. During public participation, there was overwhelming support from the public, institutions such as the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) and those that protect 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."
}