Sunday, January 8, 2012

Githu's office denies delaying implementation



By Stephen Makabila

After the recent public spat between Attorney General Githu Muigai and Constitutional Implementation Commission Chairman Charles Nyachae over crucial Bills, the State Law Office has come out to put the record straight.
A report seen by to The Standard on Sunday details how the AG’s office has performed on the constitutional implementation since Githu took office in August 28 last year.
Highlights of the report include procedure and status of implementation as at January 1. When reached for comment, Githu said: "My preferred position is to say nothing. If we continue answering each other, we are demoralising Kenyans."
And the AG, through his personal assistant Tom Odede, confirmed he had received an invitation from Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee chairman Abdikadir Mohammed for a meeting with CIC in Naivasha from Tuesday.
"We have the invitation and the AG has confirmed attendance. They will check in on Tuesday evening," said Odede. While Nyachae had hit at Githu for frustrating implementation, the AG accused him of lack of respect for his office. Githu termed as "unfortunate, irresponsible and inappropriate" claims by Nyachae that he was tabling Bills in Parliament before adequate consultation.
Nyachae, who has maintained Githu is an impediment to constitutional implementation, has said he was ready for talks with the AG.
In outlining what the State Law Office has achieved since last August, the AG’s office said the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution specifies at least 50 areas in which legislation is required, and went ahead to outline the procedures.
Political realities
According to the AG’s office, line ministries are supposed to develop policy, draft Bills and forward them to Kenya Law Reform Commission and the AG.
"The second step is for the KLRC and the AG to review and redraft Bills, before forwarding them to CIC for its input while the third step is for CIC to releases them to scrutiny by stakeholders and process amendments that may have arisen during the stakeholder forums," read the report from the AG’s office.
The fourth step involves roundtable between the AG and KLRC and CIC to build consensus. The fifth step involves the AG fairing the draft Bills and forwarding them to the line ministries for onward transmission to Cabinet.The AG then publishes the Bills as approved by Cabinet before being tabled in Parliament for debate. After Parliament passes the Bills, they are released to the AG for preparation of vellum copies to facilitate presidential assent.
According to the AG’s office, Githu had dealt with seven Bills since he assumed office last year.
The Bills include the County Governments Bill, the Transition to Devolved Government Bill, the Intergovernmental Relations Bill, the Harmonised Public Financial Management Bill, the National Land Commission Bill, the Land Registration Bill and the Land Bill.
"Ministers should be advised that, especially in the case of complicated Bills, it may be dangerous to accept any amendment by an MP unless it is obviously not complicated in itself and cannot lead to complications elsewhere in the Bill," read the report in part.
The report further says that Standing Order 106(6) of the National Assembly provides for the postponement of any part of a Bill and Standing Order 107 provides for the committee to report progress and ask leave to sit again.
"Ministers can take advantage of these provisions to persuade the National Assembly that amendments proposed should be more carefully considered by Government in cases where insufficient notice has been given to allow for such consideration," the report added.

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