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"id": 959685,
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"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"
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"content": "influence State policies and laws in their favour. State capture seeks to influence the formation of laws to protect and promote influential private interests. The first law was proposed in this House by a former Member of Parliament, Hon. Joe Donde, passed and assented to by the former President Moi, but banks were able to use courts to get their way. In 2016, this House passed the same law and they went to court again to challenge its validity. I have done my own investigations to find who this Boniface Oduor, who took this House to court is. I was surprised to find out that this Boniface Oduor was a student of law who was doing pupillage at the firm of the advocate who was representing the CBK in the same case. What does that mean? It means that Boniface Oduor was going to court on behalf of the CBK. Maybe he was sent by his boss. Maybe that is the price he had to pay for being allowed to do pupillage in that particular firm. So, what are the banks doing? They have got control of the CBK and it is now doing what the banks want to be done. That is manipulation. It is what I am calling State capture. It is not the first time they have done that. In the last year‟s Finance Bill, there was hue and cry from mwananchi that there are so many assets and cash within banks belonging to deceased persons. We, therefore, passed a law requiring that every bank gets details of the next of kin of its customers. This was after realisation that banks and other financial institutions were holding more than Kshs235 billion both in cash and assets belonging to people who are unknown. We are talking about dead people who their next of kin do not know about the amount of money being held by the banks. So, we passed a law here that every bank should get details of the next of kin. Indeed, I got a letter from my bank, in my mailbox, requesting me to give the details of my next of kin, which I did. Little did I know that the same banks had gone to court to challenge that particular amendment because they do not want to keep a record of their customers‟ next of kin. They would like to benefit from what you have banked. If the good Lord calls you and your relatives do not know you have money in the bank, the money ends up with the banks. So, banks are not willing to obey the law. They want to do everything to circumvent it. The CBK also passed some regulations limiting the amount which you may bank without explaining. I think it was up to an amount of Kshs1 million. If you bank anything more than Kshs1 million, you have to go with your invoices, letters and everything to show where you got that money. I do not even think these regulations were brought to this House. This has really affected the way people are conducting businesses out there. I do not know who gave the CBK the powers to legislate and make rules that regulate banks. The National Treasury and the CBK are supposed to be the regulators of banks. They are the ones who are supposed to give force to the rules that we make in this House regulating banks. However, we have seen the CBK and other officials of the CBK openly advocating against the rules that we have passed in this House. As a House, we should not be seen to be working with banks. We should not forget who sent us here. We are here to represent our people. Our people are being oppressed by banks. Banks have continued to make abnormal profits. From when we passed this law, banks have continued to grow both in terms of assets and their business. Last year, our banks posted very handsome profits. The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) posted over Kshs22 billion as profit for last year‟s trading. Equity Bank, if my eyes do not betray me, made a profit of Kshs16 billion, Co-operative Bank made a profit of over Kshs12 billion and Barclays Bank of Kenya made a profit of over Kshs7 billion. So, banks are making their money, but they have continued to complain that the passing of this law has affected the way they are doing business, which is not correct. All of a sudden, 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."
}