Parliament’s decision to repeal the law that gave the energy sector regulator wide-ranging powers to punish owners of homes that did not install solar water heating devices is a big relief.
The Energy Regulations, 2012, among other things, required owners of buildings that consume more than 100 litres of hot water daily to install solar water heating systems to cater for at least 60 per cent of the demand.
MPs appear to have been correctly persuaded that the Sh1 million fine or one-year jail term for non-compliance was punitive and unnecessary.
But it is the finding that the penalties imposed contravened the enabling legislation, the Statutory Instruments Act, that the MPs used to repeal.
The Act limits fines payable to a maximum of Sh20,000 or a jail term not exceeding six months, meaning the ERC overreached itself in its attempt to levy a Sh1 million fine and extend the jail term to one year.
Most importantly, however, the repeal of this law raises concern over the quality of legal advice that State agencies receive given the litany of cases in which millions of shillings in taxpayers’ funds are used to settle contractual disputes.
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