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{
    "id": 972253,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/972253/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 56,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mathare, ODM",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Anthony Oluoch",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13425,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Tom Oluoch",
        "slug": "anthony-tom-oluoch-2"
    },
    "content": "THAT, digital lending platforms like Tala, M-Shwari and Fuliza by Safaricom, KCB M- Pesa, Timiza by Barclays (now Absa), Branch, Shika Ipesa, Berry, Okash, Zenka among others continue to lure and trap borrowers into unnecessary borrowing and a vicious cycle of expensive loans by raising loan limits upon repayments of the initial loans; easing their accessibility on internet and non-disclosure of full lending terms, making it easy for Kenyans, especially jobless youth to borrow for betting or to pay previous loans instead of investments. THAT, digital borrowing has become a social menace responsible for suicides, divorce, family breakups and increased listing of loan defaulters by the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB), with a recent report by the CRB indicating that more than 2.7 million Kenyans are already blacklisted for defaulting mobile loans. THAT, the lenders charge an exploitative interest rate as high as 19.1 per cent instead of 13 per cent recommended by the Central Bank of Kenya compared to giving between 6.5 per cent and 7.3per cent interest on savings. THAT, mobile loans are expensive due to short term loan repayment, high facilitation fee charged, and transaction charges that have pushed average lending rates to about 19 per cent. THAT, considering mobile lenders are not recognised as financial institutions under regulation and supervision by the CBK under the Banking Act, they operate bereft of regulations, including tax obligations. THAT, due to lack of proper regulation, mobile money lenders infringe on clients’ rights to privacy by accessing customers’ contacts to call friends and family about the borrowers’ debt status. THAT, minimal efforts which have been made by the Central Bank of Kenya to address mobile money lending and claims of money laundering by the mobile lenders have not yielded substantive reforms. THAT, issues in respect of which this Petition is made are not pending before any court of law, constitutional or legal body. Therefore, your humble petitioners pray that the National Assembly, through the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning –"
}