MPs poised for vote to extend House sittings

By Peter Opiyo and David Ochami

Parliament will vote this afternoon to sit longer in a bid to beat Friday’s deadline to enact key constitutional Bills.

The House Business Committee (HBC) that defines Parliament’s daily agenda, voted last evening to bring motions to Parliament this afternoon to extend sitting time and eliminate lengthy procedures required to pass constitutional Bills.

Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo who sits on the HBC declared that with last evening’s vote “Parliament is rising to the occasion” in implementing the new Constitution and added that he believes MPs will vote to adopt HBC’s resolutions.

If adopted, Parliament will sit all day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with a possibility of extending this sacrifice.

Today, Parliament will reconvene to debate and pass procedural motions to adopt the extra-sitting hours, reduce or eliminate the traditional Question Time and suspend private members’ motions on Wednesday morning.

MPs will also pass motions reducing the procedures needed to initiate debate on the Bills. Normally, Bills take 14 days from the date of publication before they can be introduced to Parliament for debate.

The move comes at a time the Cabinet has been accused of deliberately delaying the publication of the Bills as the Friday deadline looms.

On Monday, Mutula said: “We intend to comply with the deadlines. The HBC and the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee and Chairmen of departmental Committees, who were present, agreed that Parliament can rise to the occasion and beat the deadlines.”

Committed

Ikolomani MP, Bonny Khalwale, also a member of HBC expressed confidence that with the extension of sitting time they would be able to clear all the 17 Bills that are supposed to be passed by Friday.

“If we remain committed we shall clear all the Bills within the timelines set,” said Khalwale.

The Cabinet has been accused of deliberately frustrating the publication of the Bills, and President Kibaki on Thursday issued an order that all the Bills that are ready be published and forwarded to Parliament for debate.

Blame game has characterised the delay in the processing of the Bills with the executive, Parliament and Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution pointing fingers at each other. Among the Bills to be brought to Parliament this afternoon are Contingencies Fund Bill and Loans Guarantees Bill.

Other pending Bills are the Political Parties Bill, which is currently in the committee stage, the Elections Bill, Urban Areas and Cities Bill, Employment and Labour Relations Bill, Ethics and Anti-Corruption Bill among others.

The controversial Public Finance Management Bill has also been withdrawn for redrafting after disagreements over its content.

A new Bill will be drafted with input from the Commission for Revenue Allocation and the Commission on Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) for enactment into a comprehensive public finance law next month. The new Bill will be drawn by the Kenya Law Reform Commission in concert with the Attorney General and transmitted to the CIC, which will then return it to the AG after scrutiny for publication or review by the Cabinet.

The comprehensive Public Finance Law will cover fiscal relations between the Central and county governments and direct Parliament’s role in national budget making under article 221 of the supreme law, according to officials who attended a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Raila Odinga on Monday to discuss the disagreement over the Public Finance Management (PFM) Bill.

The PM chairs the Cabinet’s sub-committee on implementation of the Constitution which on Monday agreed to halt the PFM Bill and publish two urgent bills instead- the Contingencies Fund and Loans Guarantees Bills which must be passed into law by August 27.

But CIC is raising new doubts about the constitutional propriety of the latter bills which Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo says will be published tomorrow. CIC chairman Charles Nyachae said any legislation  on devolution including the Loans Guarantee bill ought to be scrutinised by his Commission for at least 30 days before it is brought to Parliament.

Last evening, the Kilonzo said the sub-committee agreed that the “PFM law will be enacted in 30 days” and added that the new bill will be “a substantive law to cater for [public finance management] for county and national governments.”

The minister claimed there has been a misconception that the PFM Bill should be passed into law by Friday. According to the Fifth Schedule, Parliament ought to pass legislation on procurement and audit of public entities within four years from August 4 last year. On Monday the Justice minister said the attempt to draft the PFM Bill this week to cover these areas was “very ambitious”.

The PFM Bill drawn by the Treasury and contested by the Local Government ministry was set for discussion by the Cabinet on Monday afternoon but was shelved after the CIC and CRA made a strong case to postpone its enactment for a month.