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{
"id": 1521392,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521392/?format=api",
"text_counter": 273,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Martha Wangari",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": {
"id": 13123,
"legal_name": "Martha Wangari",
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"content": " Very well. Member for Kesses, Hon. Rutto."
},
{
"id": 1521393,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521393/?format=api",
"text_counter": 274,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kesses, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Rutto",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you so much for the opportunity you have given me. From the onset, let me thank my Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, Hon. Kimani Kuria. It is for spearheading and steering a way to ensure this Bill is here on the Floor of the House today. It has taken a lengthy time, knowing that it has gone through many rigorous processes, more so, stakeholder engagements in which I participated. Indeed, this sector is one among those that have lagged for long. It is one of the sectors with much interest. There are many players in the chain of this particular business. Some come together and organise themselves into an association or a company called brokers, while some find an opportunity to trade in insurance covers and for any other reason. It has also established many regulatory bodies. If you look at the objectives of these particular regulatory bodies, they have no definite focus on the people in them. This particular Bill has been brought at the right time. The financial sector is crying out for people with technical knowledge and a level of competence to not only conduct business but also advise the people. Many people have been suffering from a lack of understanding of the kind of insurance coverage or policy to take to secure or to protect their interest in business or even life. Why? We all understand the level of unemployment in this country. Like any other The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1521394,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521394/?format=api",
"text_counter": 275,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kesses, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Rutto",
"speaker": null,
"content": "country, it is rising. Some people find themselves in the industry just because it can give them an earning at the end of the day. What happens is that it causes a lot of chaos and confusion. Occasionally, people have lost their valuables and money even when they thought they had covered the risk. This is because they were neither guided well nor had clear instruments or tools to confer confidence to a particular person. Hon. Temporary Speaker, whereas we have heard many people talk about the whole sector, this Bill is unique because it will organise the sector. A system minus people is a failed system. We have had many systems in place that have created many levels and brought much confusion to those levels. When someone is affected, there is no clear body or person to run to, plead, or appeal their case. This particular Bill is going to do three major things. First, it is establishing an Institute. The Institute is tasked with an enormous role. Its major role is to ensure that it constitutes people operating within a given standardised environment guided by a legal framework that will guide this particular practice. Second, it defines insurance practitioners. In professions like accounting, for which I am a certified public accountant, an accountant is defined in the Accountants Act. For a person to be an accountant, other than going through normal education, knowledge, and skills, they have to be subjected to another training to ensure they are well knowledgeable of this particular practice. That person is certified after accomplishing that training through the Kenya Accountants and Secretaries National Examination Board (KASNEB). They are then subjected to another institute called the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK), which they register. They are taken through proper training and testing by a practitioner or a professional until the person has enough knowledge to discharge his duty. The Insurance Practitioners Act proposed in this Bill will ensure consumers and Kenyans have confidence in the people they will engage. Let us look at the chaos in the Matatu sector. Some people have found an opportunity in it, but others lose a lot of money. We have emerging issues like the bodaboda sector, where we do not understand how to evaluate the risk. This is because we do not have people who have devised a policy on assessing the risk of a customer who sits exposed without any support, yet they are moving on roads with a lot of risk. If you visit Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital, you will find victims of accidents. They have a dedicated facility to address the issue. Families suffer because no insurance company is ready to take up those challenges. This is because the sector is not organised and does not have knowledgeable people. One of the issues that we have to appreciate that this Bill introduces is the standardisation of the Kenyan insurance sector to match international standards. This means that any business or Kenyan can be covered in the country and accepted even outside Kenya. Alternatively, anybody can acquire insurance in Kenya, undertake the risk, and get confidence for that business to take place. This body will ensure that we have linkage, partnership and liaison with other insurance bodies to ensure that world standards are brought back to the Republic of Kenya so that the Kenyan insurance sector is appreciated globally. That will give latitude to our country in moving forward. Another issue is indiscipline. You realise most of these practitioners have been going scot-free, yet they have been messing around because nobody is checking on them. This body will ensure that quality assurance is undertaken and enhanced, proper supervision is done now and then, and follow-up is undertaken now and then, including Continuous Professional Development (CPD) training. This institute will ensure that CPD is provided for practitioners so that they have an opportunity to become acquainted with emerging issues in the sector. They ensure that they can discharge their duty in a manner that can befit the required situation at that particular moment. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1521395,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521395/?format=api",
"text_counter": 276,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kesses, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Rutto",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The other issue is that during public participation, we had concerns from the sector where they felt threatened that we were probably taking away the roles or functions they have been playing. An example is the Kenya College of Insurance. They fear that establishing an examination body will take away their role. No, this Bill does not create an institution or a college. Instead, it will establish a board that will sit down, define, and design the standard training and examinations that the same colleges— the Kenya College of Insurance and Kenya College of Accountants and any other institution, including private colleges—can offer. The examination will be set for every practitioner across the board within the country and, who knows, even outside the country. I know that KASNEB trains accountants from South Sudan, Uganda, and sometimes even Tanzania, and we subscribe to it in the same formation. The other issue is the concern of the people who have been in the sector for quite some time. There is a worry about how the transition will be now that this sector is being organised. During implementation, we also need to be cognizant of the people who have developed the interest for quite some time, although they do not know what they are going to do. We have a soft way of adopting them into the system through training and giving them that opportunity because of being there for some time. Now that you will regulate the sector, you cannot have those people moving out of the market. My concern is for the implementers to provide a proper transition mechanism so that those already in this sector are adopted and onboarded in a manner that allows them to move forward smoothly. Nonetheless, I am sure it will provide a better mechanism to sieve out those who have been lying to the people and those who have been camouflaging as insurers and have not gone through training. May I not mention anybody, but we saw some people giving names of people qualified for a given profession the other day. But we saw an institution coming out strongly saying: Look at this, we are not aware in our roll of register that so and so has been trained, has been qualified and has duly earned the title given or that is reserved to professionals for this name. We saw everything change because if we are not careful, this market will get confused and, in the future, we will have no people to be relied upon. I am calling upon this... It is not only in the insurance sector but also in many other professions. We need to look at them. I am also proposing a Bill to ensure we also standardise the banking sector. We should also standardise the procurement sector because this is another area we have been looking at with many challenges regarding procurement corruption. We need to organise it. With that, Hon. Temporary Speaker, thank you so much."
},
{
"id": 1521396,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521396/?format=api",
"text_counter": 277,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Martha Wangari, UDA",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Very well. Member for West Mugirango, Hon. Mogaka."
},
{
"id": 1521397,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521397/?format=api",
"text_counter": 278,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "West Mugirango, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Stephen Mogaka",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to contribute. As I do that, please permit me to thank and congratulate our Finance and National Planning Committee Chairman for scoring yet another first for the 13th Parliament by bringing this Bill. This Bill will go a long way in regulating one of the major players in the finance sector, an intermediary that has hitherto not been regulated. This law is key even when discussing life, medical, property, personal accident, or motor vehicle insurance. All these insurances are offered as products in this Republic, in a market that is so porous, where everybody carries themselves as an insurer. The proposed Bill will define what constitutes a professional in the insurance sector, whether a surveyor or a consultant, to assign responsibilities to the various practitioners in the industry as defined in Section 2 of the Bill."
},
{
"id": 1521398,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521398/?format=api",
"text_counter": 279,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "West Mugirango, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Stephen Mogaka",
"speaker": null,
"content": "In law, we always say that when you hold someone liable for negligence, they must have a certain level of qualification against which you judge whether they had reasonable knowledge in that profession to carry a certain level of responsibility and liability expected of their training, certification and registration. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1521399,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521399/?format=api",
"text_counter": 280,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "West Mugirango, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Stephen Mogaka",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Until now, we have been operating in a market where insurance salespeople carry themselves as insurance professionals, advising unsuspecting and vulnerable individuals who enter into insurance contracts whose fine print they do not fully understand. The Bill distinguishes who an insurance consultant is and who can give you advice which you can rely on. If you lose any money, you can hold the consultant liable. That also makes it easier for professional practitioners in the insurance sector to obtain professional indemnity insurance. If a claim arises due to faulty advice, the consultant will have insurance coverage to address the resulting liability if they misjudged the advice they gave to a client, who then lost money."
},
{
"id": 1521400,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521400/?format=api",
"text_counter": 281,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "West Mugirango, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Stephen Mogaka",
"speaker": null,
"content": "Almost all professionals in the country are being regulated. When practising banking, I was a member of the Kenya Institute of Bankers. You cannot practise as an accountant without being a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Even human resource practitioners now have laws regulating and defining who professionals are in that sector. The same applies to marketers, engineers, medics, teachers and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) practitioners. The Bill was long overdue, and the insurance sector should be celebrating that the 13th Parliament has elevated it from a general market to a professional practice, which will ensure that quacks do not operate in that sector. Through the Bill, we will standardise the qualifications, registration, and conduct of practitioners in the insurance profession. Standardising the industry will open the doors to globalisation so that any potential insurance practitioner around the world can access a website to establish the requirements for practising as an insurance professional in our Republic. We have seen unscrupulous businesspeople entering Kenya, setting up brokerage firms using the license of a non-practising broker and continuing to do business as aliens in the country. The Bill will resolve that problem and ensure only licensed and qualified practitioners can practise in the country."
},
{
"id": 1521401,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1521401/?format=api",
"text_counter": 282,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "West Mugirango, JP",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Stephen Mogaka",
"speaker": null,
"content": "I support the Member for Kesses, who, as we introduced this Bill, said to the Chairperson of the Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning that there is already an insurance sector in the country without this law. Therefore, if the Bill is assented to, we must include transitional clauses that will not bastardise those already practising insurance in this economy but will give them a grace period to comply. That is how civilised countries and nations like Kenya have always worked. Through these parliamentary proceedings, let those who do not have this kind of qualification start preparing for them. We want to position ourselves on a platform with a competitive edge to be active participants in the global financial market. I thank the Chairperson and the Committee. I also thank you once more for making me voice my thoughts. I cannot sit before appreciating the people of West Mugirango, to whom I am forever grateful, for giving me the chance to bring my brain to assist in formulating such legislation. I support."
}
]
}