Work on pending Bills, says CIOC

By MARTIN MUTUA

The Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC) has now sounded an alert over Bills meant to be enacted by December this year.

CIOC Chairman Abdikadir Mohammed has appealed to all the organs required to generate the five Bills to start work immediately to avoid a last-minute rush similar to the one that saw Parliament extend its sitting hours last week.

"I am now appealing to all the organs which include the Commission on Implementation of the Constitution, (CIC), and all the line ministries that are responsible for the five Bills to get started immediately," he said.

In an interview with The Standard On Saturday, Abdikadir said out of the five Bills, four are specifically for devolution system while the other one is for creating legislation on land.

"I am telling all the organs we have only five months for these five Bills and I don’t want us to get caught up at the last minute like what happened with recent Bills that had a one year deadline," he said.

The CIOC chair said it was important for the other arms to understand that the five months could be reduced as Parliament might go on recess before December.

"After all, you also cannot count December since it is a holiday month and therefore we have less than four months to deal with the five Bills and if they are published early, then members will have a chance to go through and avoid any last minute rush," he added.

Land laws

Abdikadir said the five Bills that must be enacted by December include Legislation on Land as outlined in Article 68 of the Constitution.

"Parliament will now have an opportunity to consolidate all the land laws and enact legislation that will govern matters to do with land issues and this will be another milestone for the country as all land issues will be consolidated," he added.

He said other Bills which are mainly on devolution include that of the removal of a governor from office as outlined in Article 181 of the Constitution, vacation of office of a member of a county Assembly in Article 194 and the legislation to effect Chapter 11 on transfer of functions between county and national governments.