Economy

Crucial Bills await House as MPs end recess Tuesday

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The National Assembly during a past sitting. PHOTO | FILE

The National Assembly reconvenes its sittings Tuesday with a full plate of legislative agenda awaiting 18 months before the lapse of their term in office.

Parliament went on recess on December 3, without passing 28 key Bills needed to fully implement the Constitution. MPs have until August 27 to pass the Bills.

The MPs risk being sent home if they fail to pass the Bills should a Kenyan petition the Chief Justice in accordance with the constitutional provisions.

Sensitive Bills that await MPs action include the Minimum and Maximum Land Holding Acreage, Agreements on National Resources, Forest Bill, Community Land Bill, Physical Planning Bill, Investigation and Historical Land Injustices Bill, Land Use Bill and Evictions Bill.

Others are the Energy Bill, the Petroleum Exploration and Production, the Bill on Representation of Marginalised Groups, Two-Thirds Gender Principle Bill, the Seeds and Plant Varieties, the Organisation and Administration of Appeal, the Small Claims Court and the Contempt of Court Bill.

The National Assembly and the Senate begins the Fourth Session of the 11th Parliament after a two months Christmas recess.

In its five years of implementation, the Constitution in the Fifth Schedule expected legislation in respect of culture, family, community land, regulation of land use and property, agreement relating to natural resources and any other legislation required by the Supreme Law to have been enacted by August 27.

MPs postponed the passage of key Bills which were required to be in place on August 27, 2014 by a further one year.

The MPs will be rushing against time to enact the 28 laws to fully effect the 2010 Constitution.

The enactment of the crucial Bills will be done in the absence of the Commission for Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) whose five-year mandate ended on December 29, 2015.

MPs refused to extend by a further one year the tenure of the Charles Nyachae-led CIC on grounds that it had finalised its work since they had its input on the 28 pending Bills.

A report of the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee recommended that the House should not extend CIC term.

The committee said any legal input required in the processing of the Bills would be rendered by the Attorney General and the Kenya Law Reforms Commission.

A number of the proposed pending legislations are currently undergoing public participation following its publication and introduction in the National Assembly before the MPs went on recess.

The Constitution provides that a constitutional Bill should be subjected to public participation for 90 days from the date of introduction in the House (first reading) and debate (second reading).

President Uhuru Kenyatta recently signed into law the Public Audit and the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Bill, 2015 whose deadline for passage expired on May 27, last year.

The MPs voted in August, 2015 to push the passage of the 28 Bills after the Executive delayed in tabling them in the National Assembly for processing.

The Constitution allows MPs to postpone the passage date of any constitutional Bill for a further one year.

In the last session, the National Assembly passed a total of 36 Bills that became law compared to the Senate’s five.

It also processed 121 Bills that were published compared the to the Senate’s 61 during the Third Session of the 11th Parliament. The legislative session commenced on February 10 to December 3, 2015.

“A total of 195 motions introduced of which 142 were ordinary motions, 24 were procedural motions and 29 were special motions.
“138 motions were adopted, two deferred, three withdrawn while four were lost or defeated. Another 48 motions are awaiting debate,” Adan Duale, the Leader of Majority in the National Assembly said.