AG moves to avert clash with House

Attorney-General Githu Muigai on Wednesday moved to calm tensions in the House by correcting an error in the elections law that was the subject of parliamentary fury on Tuesday. (Read: Storm as MPs say Kenya poll law tampered with)

Prof Muigai’s office was expected to publish the amendment, called corrigenda in publishing jargon, last evening, to resolve an error in the law, which MPs said, was introduced in the Bill after it was passed by Parliament.

The Nation was told the error had been introduced at the AG’s office, where one word — “not” — was not removed from one of the clauses, apparently in the rush to meet the August 27 constitutional deadline.

But even though staff at the AG’s office termed the error “minor” and “typographical” it changed the meaning of the law.

This is the first major setback for Prof Muigai, who is serving his second month after long-serving AG Amos Wako left office on August 27 in line with the deadline set by the new Constitution.

Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim will rule on the matter on Thursday.

Mr Maalim had said he would study the draft Bill, the Hansard, which records Parliament’s business, and the final Act before making his ruling.

Garsen MP Danson Mungatana discovered that Section 34 (9) of the Elections Act had been tampered with.

He said the published Act contained three words that had not been inserted during the Third Reading.

The published section read: “The party list may not contain a name of any presidential or deputy presidential candidate nominated for an election under this Act.”

The draft Bill read: “The party list shall not contain a name of any candidate nominated for an election under this Act.”

Mr Mungatana had successfully proposed to delete the words “shall not” and replace them with “may” on August 26.

The final section should, therefore, have read: “The party list may contain a name of any candidate nominated for an election under this Act.”

Mr Mungatana said somebody, either within Parliament or at the Government Printer, added the words.

“The effect of this is that a party can include all other persons who have contested different seats such as the Senate and leave out the presidential candidate and his running mate.

“This is not a comma mistake or a dash. This was done to undermine, to negate, what Parliament has done,” the Garsen MP said.

He asked for “appropriate consequences to be visited” on those found to have introduced the errors.

Speaking in an interview with the Nation, Government Printer Andrew Rukaria distanced himself from blame, saying he was unfairly linked to the error.

He said he only printed artworks sent to him from a state counsel in the AG’s chambers who is in charge of Parliament, and had no chance of making any alterations.

“I am like a computer which is used to send work from its screen to a desk jet printer,” he said, adding such a process will never introduce an error to any document.

Mr Rukaria, who has thrice been the subject of criticism whenever errors on documents arose, said the Elections Act was printed and delivered with the exact contents as had been received.

He asked to be spared blame, arguing “we do not want to be drawn to tasks that are outside our mandate”.

“Let those who do the work (of preparing Bills) explain this error,” he said.

Bills from the AG’s office came in hard copy format, he said, which couldn’t be altered without disfiguring the layout.

The hard copy from the AG’s offices is shot on film and the film used to make the plates, which are ultimately used in the printing.

After the printing, Bills are taken to the AG’s office to ascertain they contain all the details needed. It is at this stage that the errors should have been noted, Mr Rukaria said.

Inquiries in Parliament confirmed that once MPs passed Bills, they were taken to the AG’s office together with the Hansard report and a record of proceedings in the House.

The AG’s office then prepares a draft Bill, which is taken back to the Clerk of the National Assembly to confirm if it captures all amendments endorsed by MPs.

Losing presidential candidates

After confirmation by the Clerk, the document goes back to the AG who forwards it to the President for assent and later relayed it to the Government Press.

Had the error been allowed, it would have meant that losing presidential candidates and their running mates could be nominated for MP and Senator.

The error raised anger in Parliament where Gichugu MP Martha Karua, Olago Aluoch (Kisumu Town West) and Mr Mungatana demanded investigations.

“All the Bills we passed have become suspect as we don’t know whether what was published is authentic. Their confidence and integrity has been eroded,” Ms Karua said.

It was the second time a Bill passed in the rush to beat the one-year deadline has been published with an error.

Last year, an error was discovered in the proposed Constitution where two words were inserted in Article 24 (i) of the document.