Parliament beats deadline, approves Bills

Parliament beats deadline, approves Bills Written By:Samson Kitavi,    Posted: Sat, Aug 25, 2012

The six Bills are likely to be assented to by the President this weekend Parliament has dispensed with all the six crucial Bills in effect beating the August 27th constitutional deadline. By 9pm Friday night, the lawmakers had debated and approved five Bills, among them the assumption of the Office of the President Bill, the Kenya Defence Forces Bill and the Petitions to Parliament Bill. Others were  the Leadership and Integrity Bill, the National Intelligence Service Bill, 2012, and the National Security Council Bill, 2012.The Bills now awaits presidential assent before becoming law. In a special session held on Friday, MPs spent the longest time ever in parliament's history to debate and conclude the National Intelligence security Bill. The Bill which had over 90 amendments took the legislators more than ten hours to be approved. The Bill among other things deprives the spy agency teeth to vet the mps. It took parliament less than 15 minutes to dispense the last Bill, The National Security Council Bill which had only a few amendments. On Thursday, the MPs hurriedly approved four Bills among them the watered down Leadership and integrity Bill. After  completing the business, the legislators once again accused the executive of ambushing them on important  matters such as the passage of the Bills. The six Bills are likely to be assented to by the President over the weekend.