Take charge of new law implementation, PM urges House

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has challenged Parliament not to succumb to intimidation from the Executive in implementing provisions of the constitution February 16, 2011. FILE 

By NJERI RUGENEPosted Wednesday, February 16 2011 at 18:14

Prime Minister Raila Odinga has challenged Parliament not to succumb to intimidation from the Executive in implementing provisions of the constitution.

Mr Odinga pleaded with MPs to firmly protect the constitution by ensuring that the latter and spirit of the new charter is adhered to.

Issuing a statement during his weekly Prime Minister's Time on “Implementation of the New Constitution: Realizing Devolution", Mr Odinga emphasised on the need to begin the implementation of the new constitution "on the right footing".

“There is need to start implementation of the constitution on the right footing. I plead with you not to be intimidated or blackmailed by any body whether it is the Prime Minister or the President of the Republic of Kenya,” he said.

Referring to the controversial appointment by President Kibaki to four key constitutional offices, Mr Odinga maintained the need to revisit the appointments saying “there is no face of gender reflected in it".

He told MPs the country has a good constitution that will transform the lives of Kenyans if properly anchored.

“Parliament cannibalised the Lancaster constitution which was good through numerous amendments. I plead with you not to be like the first parliament which mutilated the constitution,” he said.

The Prime Minister said some individuals in government were still living in the past and had not accepted change with regard to the constitutional requirements of a third of either gender in all public appointments and in political representation. He said all appointments should reflect a third of either gender.

“Do not be steeped in the past, things have changed with the coming into force of the new constitution. We need to promote women and give them their rightful share in appointments and political representation,” he noted.

Outlining what the government is doing to set structures for devolved government (county governments) ahead of next year general elections, Mr Odinga said a Task Force, has been set up in the Ministry of Local Government to recommend policy and legislative proposals for implementation of devolved government.

He said the task force will begin county public hearings from February 21, 2011 and complete its work in June. A sessional paper will then be formulated for parliamentary approval.

MPs John Mbadi, Chachu Ganya and Martin Ogindo sought clarification from the Prime Minister on the rationale behind the setting up of the Task Force by Local Government Ministry instead of the National Assembly saying county assemblies should be modelled on the structure of the House.

Others who sought clarification were: Njoroge Baiya, Rachael Shebesh, Mutava Musyimi, Benjamin Langat, Danson Mungatana, Abdul Bahari and Erastus Mureithi.

Responding to MPs concerns, the Prime Minister called on the need to prepare for the new structure of governance that entails greater accountability and transparency in the exercise of power.

“We all agree on the need to cultivate the culture of financial restraint in our counties. We need to ensure that County Governments will have the capacity to manage their financial affairs.  We must avoid the risk of resources being provided to Counties without having the capacity and accountability mechanism to spend them responsibly and efficiently.

"We need a well designed and implemented public finance management system for devolved governments, which preserves a substantial degree of autonomy in making fiscal decisions.  If controls are inadequate or information quality is poor, County Government performance and accountability will be undermined,” he said.

The PM said work needs to start on capacity building for future human resource managers, auditors, budget controllers and revenue officers, ahead of the arrival of the County governments.

Mr Odinga said reforms envisaged under Devolution will have to be implemented in a manner that is consistent and coordinated across the National Government.  The transition, Mr Odinga said need to be properly planned to avoid any disruption to the provision of essential government services.

“One of the requirements of the Devolved government is that one third of the seats in the County Assembly and one third of the positions in the County Government will have to be occupied by women. That is now the law.  As I travel across the country Mr Speaker, I get the feeling that this message has not sunk down enough and very little sensitisation is going on,” Mr Odinga noted.

He said women have been relegated to observer status in the country’s politics which has always been ‘masculine and physical” and appealed to women organisations and international organisations to begin the process of preparing and empowering women for the political positions where they are guaranteed certain numbers by law.