Constitution committee plans Bills merger to beat deadline

The Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC) will merge two Bills in a bid to pass 18 pending Bills before August 27.

The committee also asked Justice minister Mutula Kilonzo to discuss with the House Business Committee (HBC) possibilities of extending parliamentary sittings, including on weekends, to speed up the passing of several Bills before the constitutional August 27 deadline.

Last week the CIOC threatened to ‘punish’ the minister if he failed to table Bills still held by the Attorney General, the Cabinet and the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) by yesterday.

Meanwhile, the CIOC will begin to vet nominees to the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board on Friday as Parliament plots to take a final vote on the Political Parties Bill on Thursday.

Vice-chairperson Millie Odhiambo said yesterday that the committee had derived a formula to pass five Bills in a week and announced that MPs have just 13 days, to pass the 18 laws, including the Environment and Land Court Bill and the Power of Mercy Bill, which have not even been drafted.

Odhiambo said the committee “has no intention” of seeking Parliament’s approval to extend passage of these laws beyond August 27 as suggested by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka last week.

The strategy

The strategy involves the creation of three sub-committees within the 27-member CIOC to scrutinise the pending Bills.

After discussions, Odhiambo said a sub-committee, led by nominated MP Amina Abdallah, would merge the Kenya National Human Rights Commission Bill and the Commission on Administrative Justice Bill.

The merger was proposed at the MPs’ retreat in Mombasa at the weekend which also recommended the Bills’ suspension from debate.

The merger means either a new Bill will be drawn covering aspects in both or one of them will be withdrawn and the remaining one amended to include the other.

CIOC agreed to allow its vice-chair to consolidate all proposed amendments to the Political Parties Bill for a fast approval of the final vote.

She said Parliament would not be held back from vetting the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board nominees if the President delays in naming the three foreigners to sit on the Board.

“We have confirmed that we actually have 13 days and not 17 days to ensure that all the Bills have been passed,” she said.

Assistant minister Alfred Khang’ati will chair the sub-committee that will scrutinise the private Bill, The Ratification of Treaties Bill.

The committee agreed that the merged Bills (the Treaties Bill, Political Parties Bill and the National Gender and Equality Commission Bill) are approved by Thursday.