The Standard | Row over Finance Bill boils over in Parliament

Updated 9 hr(s) 27 min(s) ago

By Standard Team

Parliament stood its ground the Finance Bill must be amended to allow for fixing of bank interests rates, as frustration in the Executive, which is opposed to the changes, rose.

In the end, last evening the House broke off for Christmas with the standoff, and in the mercy of consultations that may continue among concerned parties during the recess.

President Kibaki held a closed door meeting with a section of Cabinet at Harambee House in a last ditch effort to push the Finance Bill through Parliament, even as MPs for the second day running declared they would not allow what they see as insubordination by Executive.

The meeting came a day after President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga faced hostile MPs at an informal sitting in Nairobi. They failed to persuade them to drop the proposed amendments that have delayed the passage of the Finance Bill and the adjournment of Parliament. The Constitution requires the Bill must be passed by December 31.

Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo wants the Bill amended to cap the commercial banks? lending rate at not more than four per cent above the Central Bank interest rates. CBK lends to commercial banks at eight per cent, but commercial banks lend to individuals at about 25 per cent.

Should the Midiwo amendment be adopted, then banks would lend at no more than 22 per cent.

"We have a situation where the Government helps crooks to create an artificial economy," said Midiwo, pointing out that banks were fleecing Kenyans.

The Government is opposed to the amendments and has on several occasions held the Bill in abeyance, in what the MPs now say is a plot to protect banking cartels.

"We agreed to push for the adjournment of the House and continue with consultations, but in the meantime the ministry will not execute taxation measures as stipulated in the Finance Bill," revealed a minister in the closed-door talks.

Tempers flared

In Parliament, tempers flared after Gwassi MP John Mbadi asked Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta to declare the interests he has in the financial sector. "It is politics and nothing to do with interest rates and it is true that I have interests in the financial sector," responded Uhuru.

The minister said the amendments proposed in the Finance Bill were floated about a month ago and he had engaged Midiwo, but in vain.

The minister asked the House to go on recess as he continues engaging House Finance Committee after the Christmas holiday, so that a solution can be found over the high interest rates banks charge.

"We wasted three weeks trying to engage but that does not mean we will stop deliberating with the committee and individual members," said Uhuru.

Mbadi, Kisumu Town West MP Olago-Aluoch and Assistant Minister Ayiecho Olweny opposed the recess. They argued the Finance Bill must be debated and finalised before the House breaks for holidays.

"Kenya has become a striking nation and that is bad for both foreign and local investors," said Olweny.

Unruly banks

Juja MP William Kabogo supported the adjournment Motion but said Kenyans need to be helped because banks were unruly. "Kenya is the only country in the world where the exchange rates can go from Sh82 to Sh114 and back to Sh82 in the same month,"

Assistant Minister for Defence Joseph Nkaiserry supported the adjournment Motion moved by Transport minister Amos Kimunya.

"The banks have been left to fleece Kenyans. Kenyans have been left at the mercy of these banks, which are charging high interest rates. It is irresponsible for Parliament to go home and leave Kenyans at the mercy of cartels," said Gichugu MP, Martha Karua.

Imenti Central MP, Gitobu Imanyara accused the Government of acting as "an employee of the commercial banks".

"One bank has taken the role of CBK and functioning as CBK contrary to the banking regulations," said Imanyara.

"You can only control cartels through legislation because the Government has failed to regulate them," said Mbadi.

Nambale MP Chris Okemo, who chairs Departmental Committee on Finance, accused banks of behaving irresponsibly by posting huge profits through exploitation of Kenyans.

Water Minister Charity Ngilu accused the banks of charging exorbitant rates, a line that was borrowed by Yatta MP Charles Kilonzo and Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo who, however, said the issue was technical and needed time to discuss.

Parliament adjourn

During morning session, the tussle forced Parliament to adjourn early and the members were irked by the absence of the proposed law on the Order Paper as Government planned to have Parliament break for Christmas.

Chepalungu MP, Isaac Ruto, accused the Executive of protecting commercial banks by failing to list the Bill for discussion.

Midiwo and Rangwe Martin Ogindo wanted the Bill amended to restrict lending rates.

"Where is the Finance Bill? Can you bring it up? This Government is protecting banks. We can stay here throughout Christmas until we ensure Kenyans are okay," said Ruto.

Consequently the MPs shot down procedural Motion seeking to have Government business prioritised effectively sending the House for an adjournment at 10am instead of 12:45pm.

MPs defeated the Motion, which was moved by Amos Kimunya who is the Deputy Leader of Government Business.

Ikolomani MP Boni Khalwale, who had asked why CBK is not audited, protested his question had not been answered.

Olago-Aluoch accused the House Business Committee of not coming to them ?with clean hands?, referring to the absence of the Bill on the Order Paper. Vihiga MP Yusufu Chanzu also opposed the Motion.

Planning minister Wycliffe Oparanya warned the changes would scare away investors.

"We have asked the Finance Minister to lobby Honourable Midiwo so that he can withdraw the amendments," said the Minister.

He said there was no urgency to pass the Finance Bill because unlike the old Constitution, which set the deadline for the passing of the Bill, the new one does not. "It will be disastrous if the Finance Bill is defeated in the House or amendments sought are adopted because it would mean reversing of all taxes as had been proposed by the minister in the Budget Speech," argued Oparanya.

?

?

?

---

Source: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000048749&cid=4

malawi angela davis angela davis zombie apocalypse matt moore matt moore national grid

Michele Bachmann Calls President Of Iran A 'Hater'

During her stop in Estherville, Iowa, Bachmann responded to Ron Paul's accusation on the Jay Leno show last night that she "hates Muslims."

"I don't hate Muslims," Bachman said. "I love the American people. And as president of United States, my goal would be to keep the American people safe, free and sovereign."

"The haters are the president of Iran," she said. "He stated unequivocally that given a nuclear weapons he will use that weapon to wipe Israel off the map, and he's willing to use it against the United States of America."

Also on HuffPost:

'; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/17/michele-bachmann_n_1155532.html

cain velasquez vs dos santos cain velasquez vs dos santos oregon stanford oregon stanford jon huntsman darrell hammond darrell hammond

Music Producer Timbaland Reveals He Was In Love With Aaliyah (VIDEO)

Music Producer Timbaland Reveals He Was In Love With Aaliyah (VIDEO)

Producer and performer Timbaland has opened up about about being in love with deceased singer Aaliyah, revealing he couldn’t act on his feelings. In his [...]

Music Producer Timbaland Reveals He Was In Love With Aaliyah (VIDEO) Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/stupidcelebrities/~3/_EeBYEitjq8/

sears john 3 16 office max office max cyber monday deals 2011 cyber monday deals 2011 real housewives of atlanta

Brock Lesnar charged with hunting violations in Canada

Brock Lesnar is a huge fan of hunting, but his favorite pastime got him in a spot of trouble in Canada. Lesnar faces charges in Medicine Hat, Alberta for doing the kind of things that tick off hunting officials. From our friends at CJCY in Alberta:

The charges came before Medicine Hat Provincial Court Thursday morning and include improper affixation of tags, spoilage of skin and edible flesh and possession of a controlled animal.

My lack of hunting knowledge makes this sound pretty bad, because spoilage of skin and edible flesh sound like plot devices from "Silence of the Lambs." However, the good people of Canada must not be too angry with Lesnar, because his court date was continued until January, after his fight with Alistair Overeem.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Brock-Lesnar-charged-with-hunting-violations-in-?urn=mma-wp10800

miguel cotto cotto ncaa bowl games bowls honey badger brooke mueller herman cain

Engineering experts hit safety culture in BP spill (AP)

WASHINGTON ? BP and the oil industry drilling in the Gulf of Mexico lacked the proper safety attitude to handle the large risks of deep-water drilling, leading to the many bad decisions behind the nation's worst offshore spill, a panel of expert engineers said Wednesday.

Despite better safety practices, the experts worried that the improvements could fade without new steps. They pointed to NASA and how lessons the agency learned after the 1986 Challenger disaster eventually dimmed, leading to the 2003 Columbia disaster.

The National Academy of Engineering, which advises the federal government, cited errors that combined to make the well platform explode and oil spill, but noted a problem with the safety culture underlying last year's 172 million gallon spill at BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico.

"The industrial management involved with drilling the Macondo well had not adequately understood and coped with the system safety challenges presented by offshore drilling operations," the 136-page report said. "This raises questions about the industry's overall safety preparedness, the ability to handle the complexities of the deep-water operations, and industry oversight to approve and monitor well plans and operational practices and personnel competency and training."

That's a problem because the report called drilling in the Gulf's deep waters "some of the most complex and most risky ventures conducted by commercial enterprises."

Experts said a deficient safety culture led BP to rely on blowout preventers ? a 57-foot-tall, 400-ton system of well control devices ? as equipment that just couldn't fail.

The trouble is that even before the April 2010 well blowout, "there were numerous warnings to both industry and regulators about potential failures of existing" blowout preventers, the report said. The report pointed to studies in 2001, 2002, 2004, and a 1999 well blowout and fire off the Louisiana coast.

"One needs to understand that they do not work all the time," said panel chairman Donald Winter, a former Navy secretary and engineering professor at the University of Michigan. BP and all the industry had "a misplaced confidence that the blowout preventer could provide a guarantee if you will, an insurance policy, against a blowout."

Panel member Roger McCarthy, a private engineering consultant who has investigated past oil spills, said blowout preventers are treated like drilling's circuit-breakers, but there's no safety group certifying them in the same that Underwriters Laboratories approves key electrical safety devices in homes.

Winter said the safety culture issue was apparent in the industry's attitude toward risks involved in drilling: Instead of acknowledging that there are risks and that industry officials need to make intelligent decisions comparing risk and business decisions, they had an unrealistic attitude that their actions never added risks.

Like other studies of the BP spill, the report highlighted several technical failures behind the disaster, with no lone cause. But Winter said the bad decision that was uppermost to him was the decision to abandon the well temporarily, which is normal, even though the cement poured in the well failed important pressure tests.

"Once they made the decision to basically disregard the tests," it set the chain-of-events for all that followed, Winter said.

In a statement, BP said it "has acknowledged its role in the accident and has taken concrete steps to further enhance safety and risk management throughout its global operations."

The experts do say drilling safety has improved in the Gulf of Mexico.

"We think it is indeed in fact a reasonable process to continue drilling at this point in time," Winter said at news conference. "But further improvements in safety can in fact be made and should be made."

The independence of the National Academy of Engineering means the report is likely to carry more weight in Congress than some of other investigations. Republican lawmakers have criticized prior reports by a presidential commission saying that the panel was biased.

A joint federal investigation also has inherent conflicts of interest because the committee was comprised of those who regulate the offshore drilling industry.

Since the disaster, the Obama administration has reorganized the offshore drilling agency and boosted safety regulations. But Congress has yet to pass a single piece of legislation to address safety gaps highlighted by the disaster. House Republicans, meanwhile, have passed bills to jump start offshore drilling.

___

Associated Press writer Dina Cappiello contributed to this report.

___

Online:

The National Academy of Engineering report: http://bit.ly/vQK3ai

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mexico/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_on_go_ot/us_gulf_oil_spill

north dakota jobs referendum scarlett johansson glee project winner kris humphries remember the titans wale

Sponsored By:

We were unable to forward you to the advertisement you clicked on.

The likely cause for this is that your browser, feed reader, or email application is configured to not accept cookies, or your reader may launch an external browser to view links without sharing cookies.

• If you're using Internet Explorer, make sure your privacy setting is at medium or below.
  • Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser window
  • Click the Privacy tab
  • Adjust your privacy setting if necessary
    ?
• If you're using a reader that embeds Internet Explorer (examples: Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Feed Demon), you'll also need to select Internet Explorer as your default web browser.
  • Open Internet Explorer
  • Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser window
  • Click the 'Programs' tab and check the box for Internet Explorer to check if it is the default browser and save your change
  • Close your browser, re-open it, and when prompted, select Internet Explorer as your default
  • You can then click on an ad in your newsletter and visit the site you wish to view

Source: http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=c7fdfc34ce29799d05146e605636c3a0&p=4

blue bloods temple grandin texas rangers marie osmond st louis cardinals josh hamilton beavis and butthead

Susanna Murley: 5 Ideas to Charge-up the Electric Car

While the Tesla Roadster is still the sexiest car in the electric vehicle market, companies are piling on the industry this year. Ford released its first electric car, the Focus Electric, along with a partnership with Best Buy to sell home charging stations. Rolls Royce also unveiled its new electric car, the 102EX, for the "ultra-luxury segment," and China is eying the market and aiming for the top. According to one analyst, "Beijing sees electric cars as a field where it can take a global lead, helping to transform China into a creator of technology."

The market was the topic of a Hollywood movie and a federal investigation this year -- what says "made it" better than that?

Maybe we're still looking for the idea that will make EVs really take off. I've put together a few of the best ideas around electric cars that we've received on Planet Forward that could help transform EVs in 2012. Check out some of the ideas below and tell me your idea!

One of the ways to increase vehicle efficiency is to reduce the car's weight. Research from the National Bureau of Economic Research has shown that the average car is roughly 530 pounds -- that is 20 percent heavier -- than the average car on the road twenty years earlier. BMW's carbon-reinforced fiber that will help reduce the weight of the car, while still maintaining the safety and durability standards.

Anyone who drives in the city knows that there are a lot of cars on the road, especially when you're trying to find parking. MIT's electric CityCar puts all its engine parts in the wheels, making it extremely maneuverable and compact -- you can park 3-4 of these cars into one traditional parking spot.

What if you could drive straight across the country without ever having to refuel? That's the dream behind this idea -- using magnetic bars in roadways and pick-up coils in bottoms of cars so that your EV charges while you drive. "No need to stop at recharging stations" says Ira Sorkin, the member who submitted the idea. Researchers in Utah are starting to look into the idea, but say it may not happen for 10 or 20 years.

This is an idea that will work for electric cars, hybrids and gas-guzzlers: make parts interchangeable. Both Dale Bowen and Al Smithsubmitted this idea and they see a number of advantages:

• Economies of scale -- An industry standard configuration concentrates available capital on solving problems with real economies of scale.


• Saving Energy: A lot of energy is consumed in the process of redesign, new tooling and the manufacturing of steel and new castings.


• Encourage Innovation: Automobile producers could become car assemblers, buying most of their components and assembling cars rather than redesigning parts.

This idea of upcycling was also submitted by students at Sewanee College. They took an Ford Explorer and increased the car's MPGs from 17 to 25, at a cost of only $1,500.

Featured in our April Special, Project Get Ready comes from Planet Forward member Al Dahlberg in Rhode Island. He's bringing together a determined coalition of interests to begin building an electronic vehicle infrastructure. Dahlberg's goal is to get 10,000 cars to be plug-ins in the next five years.

But will Americans buy electric cars? Rebecca Lindland of the research firm IHS joined our team of experts on Ask an Expert. See what she has to say:

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susanna-murley/5-ideas-to-chargeup-the-e_b_1149562.html

giants patriots yolo steelers vs ravens keystone xl pipeline jack dempsey lake malawi hines ward