MPs agree on Friday meeting to beat Bills deadline

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By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Friday, August 24  2012 at  00:09

IN SUMMARY

• The legislators said that despite reminders about the looming deadline, the executive had ignored all calls and deliberately boxed in MPs.

Parliament will sit Friday morning to approve two more Bills to ensure that MPs beat the August 27 deadline by which six Bills before the House have to be enacted.

The decision was arrived at after it became apparent that the National Intelligence Service Bill, 2012, and the National Security Council Bill, 2012, could not be approved by midnight Thursday.  The morning sitting is likely to extend to the afternoon given the number of amendments that the lawmakers have proposed to the two Bills.

“This will facilitate the conclusion of the two Bills and the work that we began this morning,” said Mr Amos Kimunya, the Deputy Leader of Government Business in the House.

The lawmakers were outraged. They sought to know where the dozens of ministers who had trooped to the House to dilute the Leadership and Integrity Bill, had disappeared to, when the House needed the numbers to transact business.

“This grand coalition government has never been interested in implementing the new Constitution. How can we approve a Bill of this magnitude, which is the core of governance, without the Attorney General, and with only five ministers?" posed Dr Boni Khalwale (Ikolomani).

The MPs said it was “sad” that every time there’s a deadline, the government kept rushing and forced the lawmakers to sit late into the night.

“I am really frustrated with the Executive as far as implementation is concerned. The Bills have a deadline for Monday, the Executive had two years to prepare, because the deadline was set two years ago. The Executive brought the Bills two weeks ago. This is not an accident. It was intended for this to happen, so that we don’t read and scrutinize these Bills,” said the chairman of the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee, Mr Abdikadir Mohammed.

Mr Mohammed said that despite reminders about the looming deadline, the ministers, including the President, the Prime Minister Raila Odinga, the Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, had ignored all calls and deliberately boxed in MPs.

“These ministers should have been caned by President Kibaki. This government is a disaster. We should censure them,” said Mr Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu).

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On Thursday, MPs hurriedly approved the Assumption of the Office of the President Bill, the Kenya Defence Forces Bill, the Petitions to Parliament Bill, and the Leadership and Integrity Bill. Then, they were time-barred. The Speaker had ruled that the session would only go up to midnight.

“They are the ones who have delayed us for two years and they are not here to help us deal with these things. We still have an amendment on the gender issue, but the Justice Minister Eugene Wamalwa speaks at funerals, yet it is in this House where you can amend the law,” said Mr Jeremiah Kioni (Ndaragwa).

Mr William Ruto (Eldoret North) said the House ought to sit beginning midnight, because in any case, MPs were already in the House and ought to just proceed with the debate.  But after the haggling, the MPs approved the motion to sit Friday.

The sitting Friday will begin at 9am.