Cabinet election date Bill before House

The Cabinet-sponsored Bill to amend the Constitution to change the election date made its way to Parliament Wednesday with little opposition.

The introduction of the Bill effectively means that the clock has began ticking towards the 90-day period that the Constitution reserves for the public to debate it.

The MPs, who had bitterly contested the formal introduction of the Bill into the House, succumbed to a procedural mishap in the House and allowed the Bill to go through the First Reading.

The Bill seeks to amend the Constitution to change the election date from the second Tuesday of August to the third Monday of December every fifth year.

It also seeks to remove the requirement of placing a two-thirds cap on either gender in elective posts, and instead push for nomination of additional members of the lesser gender after an election.

If approved the number of seats will rise from the proposed 349-member Parliament to an indefinite number that will be dependent on the outcome of the General Election. Political parties will be called upon to give a list of extra members depending on the party strength to bridge the gender gap.

But even after the First Reading, Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo was asked to respond to the objections to the Bill raised in the House. Temporary Deputy Speaker Ekwee Ethuro deferred the matter to next Tuesday, but he did not rule the First Reading as out of order.

According to Parliamentary procedure, once a Bill is read the first time, no debate is allowed. But, nonetheless, Mr Kilonzo has said that he’ll respond to all the objections raised by Mr Danson Mungatana (Garsen) and Mr Gitobu Imanyara (Imenti Central). Mr Ethuro agreed.

Mr Imanyara and Mr Mungatana were not in the House.

Mr Imanyara has also picked the case in the Supreme Court to back his case. He said Cabinet’s push to introduce the Bill in the House “offends the doctrine of separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution”.

“To seek to amend the (Constitution) under the doctrine of separation of powers, so as to deny the Judiciary the opportunity to do what is its constitutional mandate undermines our emerging constitutional order that elevates the rule of law to a national value. The least we can do is await the judgment of the court,” the Central Imenti MP told the Speaker in the letter copied to the Justice minister, written early this week.

“The Order (on First Reading) is contrary to public policy and you should, exercising your inherent powers as Speaker, defer the reading of this Order indefinitely or until such a time after the issuing of the orders of the Supreme Court,” Mr Imanyara wrote reminding the Speaker about the pending case in the Supreme Court seeking a determination of the date of the next elections.