Deadline extension is nothing new
A third of constitutional Bills passed with extensions. GRAPHIC | NATION NEWSPLEX
What you need to know:
- On Thursday August 25, 2011, three Bills went through both the First and Second Reading, before being successfully passed after the Third Reading the next day.
- To make the lighting legislation possible, the maturity period, or the time Parliament takes to publish Bills once they are submitted, was reduced significantly from the usual fourteen days.
When the National Assembly voted Tuesday to extend the deadline for Bills implementing the Constitution to August 2016, it was the latest in a string of extensions lawmakers had sought.
Since the Constitution was promulgated in 2010, the Nation Newsplex has found that members of the National Assembly have successfully sought at least four extensions to the deadline by which Bills that implement the Constitution must be passed.
The extension granted Tuesday applies to up to 28 reported pieces of legislation, including the Community Land Bill, the Agreements on Natural Resources Bill, the Expression of Culture Bill, the Minimum and Maximum Holding Land Acreage Bill, the Evictions Bill and other Bills on marginalised groups, family and the two-thirds gender rule.
The chairman of the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee, Mr Abdikadir Mohammed, and the then Justice minister, Mr Mutula Kilonzo, refused to extend the deadline.
Of the 52 Bills that have a deadline imposed by the Fifth Schedule and have become law, 10 were passed after their deadlines were extended, 22 were passed with 10 days or less to the deadline and another 20 were passed earlier.
RIGHT ON DEADLINE
Chapters Four and Five of the Constitution, which deal with the Bill of Rights and Land and Environment respectively, have generated the most legislation, giving rise to 12 and 13 Bills respectively so far.
In August 2014, the National Assembly extended the deadline by which it had to pass five Bills by nine months. This included the Public Service (Values and Principles) Bill, Persons Deprived of Liberty Bill, Environmental Management and Coordination Bill, Public Audit Bill and Procurement and Asset Disposal Bill.
The Public Audit Bill passed the third reading on the day of the deadline, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Bill passed the day before, while the other bills passed earlier.
A little more than two years earlier, the House extended its constitutional deadline of February 27, 2012 by five months in order to pass the County government Bill.
The same deadline was also extended by two months to allow MPs to pass bills on land, including the National Land Commission Bill, the Land Registration Bill and the Land Bill.
AUGUST 25 DRAMA
The Land Bill passed the third reading a day to the new deadline, while the other two were approved the day before.
But it was not always that way. In 2011, the House narrowly escaped being dissolved. The chairman of the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee, Mr Abdikadir Mohammed, and the then Justice minister, Mr Mutula Kilonzo, refused to extend the deadline. That refusal led to a memorable day in Kenya’s legislative history.
On Thursday, August 25, 2011, three Bills went through both the first and second readings, before being successfully passed after the third reading the next day.
Seven other Bills were also passed that day, including the National Police Service Bill, the Commission on Administrative Justice Bill, the Power of Mercy Bill, the Environment and Land Court Bill, the Urban Areas and Cities Bill, the Citizenship and Immigration Bill and The Employment and Labour Relations Court Bill.
To make the lightning legislation possible, the maturity period, or the time Parliament takes to publish Bills once they are submitted, was reduced significantly from the usual 14 days. For example, the National Government Loans Guarantee Bill and the Urban Areas and Cities Bill had maturity periods of only one and two days respectively.
