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{
    "id": 974708,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/974708/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 205,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Garissa Township, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Aden Duale",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 15,
        "legal_name": "Aden Bare Duale",
        "slug": "aden-duale"
    },
    "content": " Hon. Speaker, I beg to move that the Business Laws (Amendment) Bill 2019 be read a Second Time. Hon. Speaker, the objective of this Bill is to amend various statutes for the purposes of facilitating the ease of doing business in Kenya. To apprise the House, over the past five years, and we thank the Government under President Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya has undertaken reforms that are procedural, legal, regulatory, cost-effective, time-based and have the quality of service, which have generated positive results in terms of ease of doing business in the country. What are the dividends? Currently, Kenya is ranked 56 globally in ease of doing business from 136 in 2014, out of 190 countries that went through this study. So, out of the 190 countries that went through this exercise since 2014, we are happy to report today that we are number 56 and number 3 in Sub-Saharan Africa. That is a very great improvement over the years on what the Government had done through the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives, the Cabinet Office and the direct involvement of His Excellency the President. So, this particular piece of legislation is important to our bilateral and multilateral donors, International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, investors who want to do business in Kenya, Kenyans and local investors. Hon. Speaker, if you look at Clause 2 of the Bill, it proposes to amend Section 3(6) of the Law of Contract Act, Cap 22 by inserting the words ‘physical’ and ‘electronic’ in the definition of the word ‘sign’. There are five or six Committees whose Members are in the House, who will confirm because they went through the public participation of the importance of this piece of legislation. What does this do in terms of doing business? The amendment ensures that both the physical and electronic formats be recognised as a signature to show that a person intends to bind himself to the content of an instrument in terms of contract. So, we are putting both the physical and the electronic in the definition of the word “signature”. Again, Hon. Speaker, this amendment is in conformity with Section 83B of the Kenya Information and Communication Act 1998, which recognises an electronic signature where any law provides the information on any other matter that shall be authenticated. So, we already have 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."
}