Leaders turn down governors’ bid to sit on Nema board

The National Assembly Thursday rejected a governors' bid to be represented on the board of the National Environment Management Authority (Nema).

The MPs said the proposal, which had been approved by the Senate, was likely to open a Pandora's box where governors will demand to sit in every organ of the national government including the Cabinet.

House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources chairperson Amina Abdalla (nominated) said the governors had no place in a parastatal under the national government. The MPs rejected the proposal that was contained in the Environment Management and Co-ordination (amendment) Bill.

"There's no policy or legal basis for the Council of Governors (CoG) to be represented in this agency. Policy development is the work of the national government and implementation of the policy is the work of the counties," said Ms Abdalla.

She insisted the committee had noted that counties would implement policy from the national government and that is why in the bill, the National Assembly had recreated environmental offices in the counties, and the Nema officer is the secretary.

Meet deadline

Moitalel ole Kenta (Narok North), Reginalda Wanyonyi (Bungoma), Wilbur Otichillo (Emuhaya) and David Pkosing (Pokot South) said the governors had to be stopped from 'encroaching' on the domain of the national government. They took issue with the Senate's proposal to drop a representative of the Attorney General in favour of a person from CoG.

"We have the county environment committees where every county and its governor will be represented. If there is anything they want to do, they can do it at that level. It is inappropriate to allow them to sit in the Nema board," said Murungi Kathuri (South Imenti).

Dalmas Otieno (Rongo) was the sole voice that sought to have the governors in order to create a nexus between policy at national level and in the counties, but he was defeated.

Dr Otichillo said the senators had 'missed the boat completely' when they shortened the period to prepare and implement the national environment action plan.

"It is a long participatory process that takes a very long time. When the Senate says we should reduce the period from three years to two years, that makes it a very tall order and is not achievable. All over the world, the minimum time you can come up with such a plan is three years," said Otichillo.

He said in the current law, Nema had consistently failed to meet the deadline.