House team issues new law implementation warning

Parliament’s Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC) Thursday read the riot act to three key organs in the implementation process and accused them of delaying crucial legislation to roll out Kenya’s Constitution.

Addressing a news conference after the two-hour closed-door meeting in Nairobi’s County Hall, the committee chairman Abdikadir Mohammed, warned the Cabinet, the Attorney General and the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution that should they delay with the Bills relating to the Constitution, then, MPs will publish them and go ahead with the legislative process in the House.

“The Constitution says that if Parliament fails to (enact these laws) within the given time, then it is dissolved. The primary responsibility when it comes to legislation is with Parliament.

"We’ll do everything in our power to ensure that this (Parliament’s dissolution for failing to enact laws) does not happen,” the CIOC chairman said.

Mr Mohammed added that the House will, beginning next week, push for the extension of sitting hours to expedite the lawmaking exercise as the clock ticks towards the August 26 constitutional deadline.

It emerged that the Oversight Committee was not ready to extend the August 26 deadline as provided for in the Constitution, until push came to shove.

Under article 261 of the Constitution, Parliament is obligated to enact any legislation required “to govern a particular matter within the period specified in the Fifth Schedule”.

However, MPs, with the acquiescence of the Speaker of the National Assembly, reserve the right to extend the period to make laws by up to one year, in respect to each law but then this will require the approval of two-thirds of the MPs –148 MPs.

Mr Mohammed said the AG, the CIC and the Cabinet ministers had promised that six Bills will be published by Tuesday next week, to join the four that are awaiting Parliament’s approval.

But even so, the Oversight Committee was apprehensive that the other organs are likely to default, because, they flouted earlier agreements reached in three earlier meetings, where timelines were agreed, but very few have been met.

“In the event that their mandate interferes with our mandate, then we’ll take it over,” Mr Mohammed said.

The fury of the MPs is that Parliament, as of Thursday, had no Bills relating to the Constitution in the House.

Three Bills namely, the Commission on Administrative Justice Bill, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights Bill, the National Gender and Equality Commission Bill had been scheduled for debate on Wednesday, but were withdrawn to allow MPs to be taken through the rationale of having to discuss all the three, and why the government saw it fit not to merge two of the Bills into one.

The Political Parties Bill is the fourth Bill with parliament, but after it was approved at the Second reading, the Minister of Justice, Mutula Kilonzo is still drafting the amendments that the MPs proposed. The CIC through the minister or the CIOC are set to join individual MPs in presenting amendments to the Bill in the House.

Thursday’s meeting also saw Mr Mohammed lead his colleagues in the committee to assure the country that the August 26 deadline will be met. He said the MPs had agreed that apart from the extra sitting hours, they’ll strive to shorten the publication period of Bills. MPs have just nine sitting days to the deadline.

The 27-member committee has been split into three to speed up the scrutiny of the 17 Bills.

“We believe that it is practically possible to meet the deadline if there’s serious coordination among all the organs and sacrifice,” said Mr Mohammed.

He revealed that the MPs had “candid discussions with all those people in charge of the process” and agreed to proceed expeditiously to meet the deadline.

The CIC and the Justice Minister were on the receiving end as MPs questioned why they had opted for a public spat, instead of building consensus and agreeing on issues “quietly”.

“We should not dwell on finger-pointing and blame game; if there’s anyone to blame, then we’re all to blame, because we are implementing this Constitution together,” the CIOC chairman said. “We intend to move from finger-pointing and conclude this process.”

It is this belief in in camera consultations that saw Mr Mohammed kick journalists out of the meeting room for the AG, the Justice Minister, the Office of the President and that of the Prime Minister, the Treasury, the CIC and MPs to iron out their differences.

“We believe that every discussion smoothens the process” he said.

The Oversight Committee chairman refuted CIC’s claims that some of the laws passed so far were unconstitutional; saying all laws were scrutinised carefully and that only one amendment in the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission Act had been noted by the AG and even flagged by the committee –but that after Parliament had already approved the Bill.

He dismissed the assertion that the Fifth Schedule of the IEBC Act was akin to directing the committee, saying the House had constitutional powers to make laws to guide the commission’s work.

“This is the law, if the commission does not abide by it, it will have broken the law,” he added.

Mr Mohammed recalled that it is the House that set the timetable for the defunct Committee of Experts through a law, but the law did not interfere with the independence of the commission.

Though Thursday’s meeting did not discuss the debacle within the Interim Independent Electoral Commission concerning allegations of cronyism and nepotism, Mr Mohammed said the implementation process has to be handled with care.

“These issues are very sensitive. The outlook and perceptions of these things are key to how the process will run,” he said.