Monday, April 9, 2012

MPs to apply for posts in regional parliament


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Kenya National Assembly Speaker, Mr Kenneth Marende. Photo/FILE
Kenya National Assembly Speaker, Mr Kenneth Marende. Photo/FILE 
By PETER NG’ETICH pngetich@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Sunday, April 8  2012 at  22:30
Nine MPs who will sit in the East Africa Community parliament will apply for the posts before they are nominated.
The legislators will request to be nominated for the posts by their respective parties unlike before when parties seconded them to the East Africa Legislative Assembly (EALA).
In new rules published by House Speaker Kenneth Marende, candidates will be vetted by their respective parties before their names are printed on ballot papers and voted for in Parliament.
After one has presented his/her nomination papers and they have been accepted, a candidate may lobby among legislators to secure the job.
“An aspiring candidate may approach and seek the support of an MP entitled to vote, before the nomination day,” Mr Marende said in the EALA legal notice posted on Parliament’s website.
In order to be validly nominated as a candidate for election, a person shall be nominated by a party, through its parliamentary group meeting and the party leader of whip will sign the nomination papers.
To be nominated, one has to be scrutinised by about eight agencies to qualify to vie for the seat.
The process will be similar to those of judges in which an individual can raise a question on the integrity of the office seeker even after the eight agencies have cleared him.
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Some of the agencies, which will carry out the vetting are National Intelligence Service, police, Kenya Revenue Authority, Chief Registrar of the Judiciary and the Commission for Administration of Justice.
Others are the Higher Education Loans Board, relevant professional or commercial organisations and anybody or institution as prescribed by the Bill.
After the vetting, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission will issue a certificate to the aspiring candidate to vie for the seat.
The notice is silent on whether one has to be a degree holder and House Clerk Patrick Gichoi said some sections of the Constitution had been deferred for one to vie for elective positions.
“What one needs is to have qualifications like that of a person seeking parliamentary seat in Kenya,” Mr Gichoi said.
Before, there have been issues of parties being accused of nominating their representatives based on patronage, which the new legislation seeks to stamp out.
Currently, Uganda has failed to agree on the composition of representatives to the assembly.
Deliberations on the final amendments to the rules of procedure, which are in line with the East African Community (EAC) Treaty, have since hit a snag due to Article 51 of the Treaty and the election in Article 50.

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