Ministers fault bid to lock governors out of key team

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CIC chairman Charles Nyachae (second left) with his team shortly after meeting Speaker Kenneth Marende, Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo and AG Githu Muigai at Parliament Buildings on November 23, 2011. Photo/WILLIAM OERI 

By BERNARD NAMUNANE bnamunane@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Wednesday, November 23  2011 at  22:30

A Bill whose passage will effectively lock governors out of county security committees is meeting stiff resistance even before it hits the floor of the House.

The proposed law has already been disowned by the Office of the President and the Justice ministry.

Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo and assistant minister Orwa Ojodeh (Office of the President) have claimed the National Security Intelligence Service drafted the Bill without their input and presented it to the commission on the Implementation of the Constitution with no regard to procedure.

Mr Mutula Kilonzo and Mr Ojodeh said they had been kept in the dark about the Bill, and insisted the governor must sit in the county security committees.

The Justice minister said he would not allow the Bill on the floor of the House unless governors were part of the security committees.

“We were meant to include the governor and we certainly cannot let it (the Bill) go like that. We will have the governor on board,” he said.

Mr Ojodeh said: “The Bill was crafted by the intelligence people who never shared it with us (Office of the President). We are waiting for them to share it with us because we are the ones who will move it in Parliament. There is no way you can leave governors out of security committees.”

The National Security Council Bill establishes the top security organ in the country as well as a similar arrangement at the county level.

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According to the proposal, the National Security Council is to be chaired by the President, and has as members the deputy President, Cabinet Secretaries for Defence, Foreign Affairs and Internal Security, the Attorney General, the Chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, the Inspector-General of the National Police Service, and the National Security Intelligence Service Director-General.

At the county level, the County Security Committee is to be chaired by a person appointed by the NSC, and has, as members, county bosses of the Kenya Police Service, the Administration Police Service, the Criminal Investigations Department, an NSIS representative who will serve as the secretary to the committee, and a representative of the National Government.

It is thought the slot for National Government representative is set aside for county commissioners who will soon be posted to the devolved units to ensure compliance with the law.

At the national level, the NSC will be in charge of national security matters and operations, and with the approval of Parliament, can declare war.