Members of Parliament used the first two hours of their Friday morning sitting to pass three Bills dealing with use, management and the handling of national revenue August 26, 2011. FILE
By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted Friday, August 26 2011 at 12:16
Posted Friday, August 26 2011 at 12:16
Members of Parliament used the first two hours of their Friday morning sitting to pass three Bills dealing with use, management and the handling of national revenue.
The approval moved the House a step closer to drawing the curtains on the Parliament’s four-day legislative marathon.
The House also agreed to sit on Friday afternoon to conclude all business to beat the Friday midnight deadline.
The MPs have maintained that the speed with which they’re working does not affect the quality of the Bills, because, most of them have been under consultation for a long time and that adequate debate and consultation had been done, and technical expertise included in the Bill. However, they agree that should there be an oversight in the legislation, they’ll amend the laws.
In the extraordinary sitting on Friday morning, the MPs approved the Contingencies Fund and County Emergency Funds Bill, the National Government Loans Guarantee Bill, the Commission on Revenue Allocation Bill after making several amendments, in that order.
The approval of the first two Bills effectively put an end to the anxiety (on the implementation process) that had built on Friday regarding the suit filed by the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution against Attorney General Amos Wako and the Speaker of the National Assembly Kenneth Marende.
The CIC had wanted to stop Parliament from processing the Bills, but now that the approval is done, the Bills, whose enactment deadline is Friday midnight, are headed to the President for assent.
The lawmakers used the first thirty minutes to set the ceiling for money to cater for national emergencies at Sh10 billion. In the current Budget, the Contingency Fund is capped at Sh2 billion.
The chairman of the Finance, Planning and Trade Committee in Parliament, Mr Chris Okemo, whipped MPs to scrap the two percent cap that the Treasury had placed on the Contingency Fund, saying that it was perhaps too much to cater for the vague “unforeseen circumstances”.
He told the Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, who was in Parliament, that should the need to raise more money arise, then he can as well do it through the Supplementary Budget, because the Contingency Fund has to be managed carefully.
“The Contingency Fund is actually an overdraft facility. It is an amount of money that needs to be carefully controlled. This fund has been abused in the past and there’s evidence to that effect.
"If you put it at two per cent, it will increase each year, (and we’ll be tying up money for other projects on things that are) ‘unforeseen’ which in itself cannot even be quantified,” said Mr Okemo.
“I believe the Sh10 billion cap is a reasonable ceiling and I believe the government can live within that,” he added.
The MPs then approved the National Government Loans Guarantee Bill, specifying the terms, criteria and conditions that will be used when the government stands in as security for loans to develop infrastructure in the nation and in the county.
Mr Danson Mungatana (Garsen) proposed that Parliament should ensure that the counties are also considered fairly and that the projects likely to spur economic growth should be given priority when it comes to loan guarantees.
MPs agreed that the economically challenged counties needed a boost. Even so, they said that such projects as geothermal power, roads and other infrastructure like ports, all which have a national character, the national interest should override the county interests, but the county needs also have to be given priority.
Parliament’s Finance Committee proposed that the Commission on Revenue Allocation should be allowed, as provided in the Constitution, to pick its own staff through a transparent and competitive process.The Commission on Revenue Allocation Bill was also amended and approved to allow for the smooth management of the commission set up under the Constitution.
“The CRA should be allowed to recruit its own staff but in a competitive process, the matter of having the government second staff to the commission is an administrative matter,” said Mr Okemo.
MPs approved the amendment , despite a spirited protest from the Finance Minister. The lawmakers said that it is possible for the commission to get expertise from the government without legislating the issue.
However, Mr Njoroge Baiya (Githunguri) argued: “We have to make it mandatory for the government to second staff to the commission. If you give the commission independence but deny it the opportunity to get the expertise, you’re giving the government an opportunity to stifle its growth and its mandate,” he said.
But the chairman of Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee, Mr Abdikadir Mohammed, ruled that the Constitution was clear that each independent commission should hire its own staff. With that MPs had their day.
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