New law seeks to ease doing business

Company liquidation concept.

Shareholders of companies declared bankrupt by court will have 30 days to salvage their businesses.

This is after President Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday assented to an omnibus Bill that seeks to amend, among other statutes, the Insolvency Act, 2015.

The amendment of the Insolvency Act, 2015, was contained in the Business Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which was introduced by National Assembly Majority Leader Amos Kimunya.

The Business Laws (Amendment) Act, 2020, also allows receiver managers to pay unsecured creditors at the same time with secured ones, in what is a score to suppliers who are always last in repayments.

The amendments contained in the Business Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020, are aimed at easing the cost of doing business.

When introducing the Business Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020, Kimunya said the amendment of the Insolvency Act, 2015, also sought to clarify that an administrator of a bankrupt company can also distribute routine payment to unsecured creditors without court's permission.

The Act has also amended the Stamp Duty Act to exempt payment of fixed stamp duty of Sh100,000 on contracts for purposes of reducing the cost of doing business.