MPs get 60-day extension to debate key Land Bills

Parliament has voted to extend Sunday's deadline to pass key Constitutional Bills by 60 days.

A total of 150 MPs endorsed the extension that allowed them more time to enact laws to initiate land reforms in Kenya.

Only Danson Mungatana (Garsen) opposed the push to alter the Constitutional deadline of February 26, after which the House could have been exposed to litigation for failing to enact laws on time. None of the 151 lawmakers in the House abstained from the vote.

The amendment of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution to extend the time required to approve the three land laws –National Land Commission Bill, the Land Bill and the Land Registration Bill—came just moments after the House extended its sitting hours to 11pm, in order to approve the Bills on Devolution.

The laws on land and devolution had to be approved within 18 months of Promulgation Day, which was August 27, 2010. While the cut-off date for the devolution Bills stays at February 26, that of the Bills on land, has been shifted to April 26 this year.

With Parliament sitting late into the night, the expectation was that it would be done with those on devolution, and send them for Presidential assent, by the time it adjourned for the weekend.

Abdikadir Mohammed, the chairman of the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee, termed the House resolution as a “first major step” in reforming the country’s troubled land sector.

When he rallied MPs to support the resolution, Mr Mohammed told them that land issues were so crucial that all players had to be listened to. MPs who contributed to the debate in the run-up to the vote had accused the Executive of mischief in publishing Bills so close to the constitutional deadline.

The chairman of the House Committee on Lands and Natural Resources Mutava Musyimi argued that the Executive ought to have known that time was crucial in legislation and it should have published the Bills much earlier.

The tension-packed afternoon saw the voting delayed by 45 minutes as the House waited for more MPs to enter the House for the vote.

The morning sitting was interrupted prematurely after the Executive kept off the august House.

There were 66 MPs in the House, way below the minimum of 148 required to approve the deadline extension as prescribed in law.

Lands minister James Orengo and Attorney General Githu Muigai cut lonely figures on the frontbench as backbenchers read mischief in low turn-out of ministers and their assistants.