By Moses Njagih
Nairobi, Kenya: Senators have commenced the process of scrutinising past legislations with what they consider possible areas that ‘enemies of devolution’ can capitalise on to frustrate operations of the county governments.
Informed by fears that some individuals in the Executive were opposed to devolution and were keen to take advantage of existing ‘weak’ laws to undermine the authority, mandate and functions of county governments, the senators said they will overhaul all laws that are in conflict with the devolved system.
The Senate is especially looking at legislations enacted, some during the colonial period to affirm the Provincial Administration and which saw the creation of an imperial structure of government with enormous powers vested on the representative of the Executive at the grassroots.
Other laws were enacted after the devolved system initiated at independence was killed in 1966, to cement the rule of an imperial presidency. But with the Constitution guaranteeing devolution, the House is now keen to either repeal some of the laws or amend others to make them conform to the devolved system.
Siaya Senator James Orengo introduced a Motion in the Senate last week towards formation of a committee that will to look into the existing laws that may undermine the authority, mandate and functions of county governments. He is the proposed chairman of the committee, with the membership largely consisting of senators with a legal background.
Imperial powers
“The spirit is to have the committee look at all past laws, some of which create imperial government officials, whose time is up with the devolved system. We want to ensure that we remove any legislation that is a threat to devolution,” said Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar.
Omar, who is a member of the proposed committee, said that much of the targeted laws are under the provincial administration, whose officials were hitherto granted imperial powers over their jurisdiction.
Such laws include the Chief’s Act and the Public Order Act, which have largely been accused as giving Chiefs and their assistants immense powers over their subjects.
Nominated Senator Janet Ong’era said the committee must also re-look at the National Government Coordination Act, enacted by the Tenth Parliament, but which some argue is negating the spirit of devolution.
She said with the powers of counties now vested on the elected officials it was imperative to do away with the powerful position of County Commissioners, saying it would create a parallel centre of power that may hamper the authority of the elected officials.
“Kenyans were particular that they wanted units headed by their elected officials, so by creating the powerful position of a County Commissioner, as a parallel office to the Governor, does not conform to the spirit of devolution,” she said.
