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{
"id": 1582972,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1582972/?format=api",
"text_counter": 295,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kikuyu, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah",
"speaker": null,
"content": "With that, Hon. Temporary Speaker, I beg to second."
},
{
"id": 1582973,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1582973/?format=api",
"text_counter": 296,
"type": "scene",
"speaker_name": "",
"speaker_title": "",
"speaker": null,
"content": "(Question proposed)"
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{
"id": 1582974,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1582974/?format=api",
"text_counter": 297,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Farah Maalim",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Hon. Naisula."
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{
"id": 1582975,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1582975/?format=api",
"text_counter": 298,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Samburu West, KANU",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Naisula Lesuuda",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for this opportunity to contribute to this very important Bill by the Leader of the Majority Party, Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah, and moved by the able Chairman of the Departmental Committee on Finance, Hon. Kuria Kimani. As has been said by both the mover and the seconder, this is a very important Bill which seeks to protect consumers of virtual asset services. We are moving speedily in technology. Personally, I have been approached by very many young people, telling me to get into the cryptocurrency space. You do not have to meet them; they tell you virtually where to put money. I can imagine very many people have lost their money because we do not have proper regulations or laws that safeguard consumers. This Bill mandates that any entity offering virtual assets services in Kenya must be licensed by the relevant regulatory authority. Right now, people are just operating in an unaccountable manner. This Bill will ensure transparency and accountability in the industry. Designated regulatory bodies will be CBK, CMA and CA. They will license, supervise and enforce compliance with the law. In terms of compliance and doing what is right, we are the fourth country in Africa to develop a Bill to govern this space. Kenya is never left behind in putting in place necessary regulations. This Bill will also help us to deal with money laundering, terrorism financing and threats to financial stability. It also seeks to protect the consumer of virtual assets such as cryptocurrencies and crypto assets. This is the space many young people are getting into. You will rarely find a young person telling you they want to invest in a piece of land. They are not like the older generation who chase a piece of land or an apartment and wait for it to appreciate and later dispose. So, it is important for us legislators to put laws and regulations in place to safeguard those who are keen on these spaces. Those who will provide these services will need to maintain a registered office to operate legally in Kenya. As I mentioned, we are being approached by people in the streets, telling us to buy crypto. They will now be required to be registered and get a licence to establish and maintain a registered office within Kenya to ensure physical presence for regulatory and customer engagement purposes. In case you con somebody, it will be possible for the regulatory bodies to track you down. Each virtual assets service provider must appoint a CEO who meets the eligibility criteria set by the relevant regulatory authority, ensuring competent leadership. This will also ensure that we are not just dealing with people who do not have the know-how in these matters but someone qualified. The regulatory bodies will ensure that happens. There are some provisions that can be looked at later during the Committee of the whole House. We will see if amendments can be made. The licence and compliance costs are high. Young people who are keen on this will say they are being locked out of practice. The Bill requires all virtual assets service providers to undergo extensive licencing procedures, which may be costly and time consuming. Of course, it is good to have strict and stringent The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for informationpurposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1582976,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1582976/?format=api",
"text_counter": 299,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Samburu West, KANU",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Naisula Lesuuda",
"speaker": null,
"content": "measures, but this might lock out small start-ups and young people in this space. I do not think that is the whole essence of the Bill. Small start-ups may struggle with the financial and bureaucratic burdens, leading to monopolisation by large firms. We might want to look at that provision. There is also the whole issue of collection of extensive customer data, which may violate user privacy rights. These are some of the provisions we might want to look out for as we continue considering the Bill. As I conclude, this Bill is very important because it will ensure that people interested in the virtual assets space are safeguarded. I support."
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"id": 1582977,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1582977/?format=api",
"text_counter": 300,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Farah Maalim",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " The Member for Kesses."
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{
"id": 1582978,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1582978/?format=api",
"text_counter": 301,
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"speaker": null,
"content": "(Hon. (Dr) Robert Pukose spoke off the record)"
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"id": 1582979,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1582979/?format=api",
"text_counter": 302,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kesses, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Rutto",
"speaker": null,
"content": " Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker, for recognising me. I want to remind my good brother and senior from Endebess, Hon. Pukose, that being a member of the Committee I am happy to get an opportunity to weigh in on the information that we derived from stakeholders. It is true to say the market is dynamic. I appreciate this country for recognising that there are some things you cannot change. We say change is constant. One of the changes we cannot avoid is the aspect that the market is ever changing. The whole world is shifting. It came from steel money to stable coins to paper money to card money and now we are using digital money through M-Pesa and other platforms. As we speak, the market has shifted further to virtual assets where you store your value in an asset that is not visible. Something that astonished us when we engaged with stakeholders is that we learned a lot that this market has been existing for some time and the value transacted goes into trillions of US dollars. This is something that we cannot avoid. Something to note on the Floor of the House is that there are countries like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and many others that have accepted this as a medium of exchange, where you transact virtually and derive value by obtaining commodities in the market for your consumption. Therefore, this brought about the need for Kenya to adopt it in an unofficial manner. It is in use because many Kenyans and business people are in it and many great people who have been investing in other aspects of investments have even spread their risk portfolio to virtual assets. We, therefore, need to organise this market because the risk that comes with it is that there is no place or point where you can reference. There is also no physical office or structure to go to whenever you have an issue to inquire, obtain information, or even petition your complaints whenever you have a case arising out of it. This Bill will, therefore, put in place infrastructure that will organise the market into a tangible physical point where someone can be seen, engaged and issues addressed. I urge this House that as we look into it this is something that we must embrace since it is the way the world is going. If big economies like the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa in Africa, which is an economy we can refer to within our African boundaries have adopted it, Kenya should be proud that we have opted in as the fourth in line. We should adopt it, encourage and onboard many people to invest in a secure manner. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for informationpurposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
},
{
"id": 1582980,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1582980/?format=api",
"text_counter": 303,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Kesses, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Julius Rutto",
"speaker": null,
"content": "The only challenge we ought to speak about is to encourage the CBK to up its game and undertake sufficient research because the risk that has come out of this discussion is how our economy will be protected and the value of our currency, the fiat money that we transact with. Those are some of the issues CBK needs to up its game so that it can protect our legal tender. The current exchange rate between the dollar and Kenya shilling has stabilised at around Ksh128. We should look at how we shall stabilise our currency as we go the virtual way. We are all aware that the other day the Cabinet resolved that there will be no more creation of authorities. The Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill will establish an authority to manage these assets, besides the CBK and CMA that have been managing the security markets in terms of shares, bonds and treasury bills. This sector has a unique characteristic that will require a unique board or authority with sufficient technical knowledge to manage. This authority will require knowledge from CMA, CBK and Financial Reporting Centre (FRC) for the sole purpose of organising the market well and protect consumers. We should not forget that recently we passed the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Terrorism Financing Laws (Amendment) Bill in this House that was signed into law. The law ensures that the virtual assets sector cannot be misused to conduct money laundering that I have heard someone calling wash wash to transact illegal money from another country. These are issues that have to be looked at so that we avoid issues to do with money laundering through this particular asset. I support this Bill and appreciate my Chairman for providing leadership, Hon. Kimani Ichung’wah, and my colleague Members of the Committee. It was a very difficult subject, but I am happy we are here. However, I need to note that we had a challenge. I appreciate our team of legal staff. The drafters of this Bill, the National Treasury gave us a Bill that would make you sorry. I do not know who drafted it. I am not aware whether the Attorney-General looked at it or not. It had many repetitions, inconsistent words and words that could not be legalised. During the Committee of the whole House when the Chairman will be moving, we will note and appreciate amendments in almost all clauses. We urge them to prepare Bills well before they submit them to this House. It is a lot of work to redraft a Bill instead of looking at the issues raised by stakeholders and moving forward with a Bill that is well organised. Thank you very much, Hon. Temporary Speaker."
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"text_counter": 304,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Hon. Farah Maalim",
"speaker_title": "The Temporary Speaker",
"speaker": null,
"content": " The Whip of the Minority Party followed by Member for Endebess."
}
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