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{
    "id": 959755,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/959755/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 159,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Kiminini, FORD-K",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. (Dr.) Chris Wamalwa",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1889,
        "legal_name": "Chrisantus Wamalwa Wakhungu",
        "slug": "chrisantus-wamalwa-wakhungu"
    },
    "content": "the Fulizas and Okoa Jahazis because they are making abnormal profits. No wonder Safaricom has been making abnormal profits here. Coming to the SMEs, the core business of a bank is to lend money to people so that they can do business. Those of you who have done basic economics, when you look at price elasticity, when the price of a commodity goes down, you expect the demand to go up. If the interest rates went down, we expect more people to borrow money. So, when you come to tell us that when the interest rates cap came in the amount of borrowing by the private sector went down, it is an issue of integrity and governance. Banks have colluded. It is a conspiracy. They have colluded and have decided to blackmail Parliament so that we are forced to remove the cap on interest rates. When you go to other jurisdictions, for example, in developed countries like the US, China or Japan, the interest rates on average are at 2 or 3 per cent. This encourages entrepreneurship and small business enterprises to rise but in this country the robber is the bank. We will not allow them. Even if it is in the Finance Bill, we are going to reject that in totality. We are telling Central Bank of Kenya and Treasury that it is not going to be business as usual. Banks should not operate in this manner in this country. In a small town in this country, you will find all banks. Go to Kitengela, for instance, which is a small town you find all the 44 banks there. They are everywhere and that is how they rob Kenyans. We want them to give out the money. We do not want them to retain the money and give it only to the Government. For us to grow the economy of this country, it is through the small and medium enterprises. We are calling upon the banks, wherever they are, this is a governance and integrity issue. We do not want them to collude and try to frustrate the small and medium enterprises. Give out the money to Kenyans. This is how we are going to create jobs for the young graduates so that this country can go far. And those of you who are interested parties in this case, please, do not blackmail us. This is a small country with a liberalised economy. Even if we allow market forces to apply, we do not…."
}