In-tray full as divided Parliament faced with pending crucial Bills

By David Ochami

Parliament will reconvene on Tuesday for a session expected to unlock the deadlock on various sticky issues that stalled in political acrimony.

But while it was thought the recess would have allowed negotiations to reach a compromise, recent political pronouncement show confrontation is inevitable in the House.

On Thursday, Parliament’s Budget Committee declared the Government is levying illegal taxes following its failure to enact the Finance Bill by December 31, last year.

According to a statement by the committee, "the continued collection of illegal taxes by the Government…smacks of great indiscipline on the part of the Treasury", signalling renewed conflict with Parliament. Finance Minister Robinson Njeru Githae will be inheriting the ‘indiscipline’ created by immediate former minister Uhuru Kenyatta, who resigned early this year following his indictment by the International Criminal Court ICC over crimes against humanity.

New faces

Githae, like Justice minister Eugene Wamalwa, Nairobi Metropolitan Minister Jamleck Kamau and Assistant Transport minister Ali Hassan Joho, will be the new faces on the front bench this session.

Besides Lands minister James Orengo who has ten days to ensure enactment of three pending Land Bills, including the National Land Commission and Land Registration Bills, Githae has scores to settle with Parliament. According to the implementation programme of the new Constitution, the Land Bills were to be enacted by March 27, but the minister secured a resolution of Parliament to postpone enactment by 60 days, which expire on April 27.

Unconfirmed reports indicate the Lands minister is consiering merging two Bills to beat thedeadline. But it is the pending Finance Bill that is expected to generate most heat between Githae and the Budget Committee.

Already, the Finance minister or his predecessor have not tabled the Budget Policy Statement, a forecast for the next Budget, which was due by March 21.

Under Article 224 of the new Constitution, the Executive through the Finance minister and Parliament through the Speaker, are expected to have tabled their Budget statements for the 2012/2013 fiscal year by theend of this month.

Last year, Uhuru failed to present the BPS and Budget on time arguing "we are still in transition" and that he was not the "Cabinet Secretary in charge of Finance" proposed in the new charter.

This sparked an altercation with the Budget Committee, which ended in an anti-climax when most committee members’ anger, suspiciously, crumbled and a divided Parliament restored the Budget proposed by Uhuru.

Budget proposals

Githae and Speaker Kenneth Marende are therefore expected to publish their Budget proposals for the new financial year by end of this month. Before the end of the month, Githae is also expected to seek approval for a Supplementary Budget to complete the 2011/2012 financial year.

Uhuru first tabled the Finance Bill on December 1 last year but withdrew it after several MPs threatened to introduce Acts of Parliament to control banking. As the December 31 deadline approached, Marende argued the consequences of not passing the legal instrument that enables the Government to tax legally on time "are dire" but it was not clear when any illegal taxation would ensue.

Githae says the taxes being levied now are legal but Budget Committee chairman Elias Mbau thinks otherwise. Last month, he said "Kenyans may, legally, refuse to pay taxes" if the stalemate on the Bill is not solved by June but still claimed the taxes "being levied now are illegal."

On Thursday, the committee said Sh5 billion had been levied illegally since last December.Separately, Parliament is expected to nominate and approve nine Kenyans to sit in the East Africa Legislative Assembly. The deadline to have new Eala MPs is on Tuesday.

The Speaker has published new regulations for these appointments. On the basis of parliamentary strength, ODM is to nominate five representatives while PNU will have four to the regional assembly.

Debate on commission

Parliament will also debate and approve nominees to the National Police Services Commission. Prime Minister Raila Odinga has rejected the names proposed by President Kibaki.

Also set for vetting and debate are names of nominees to the Independent Policing Oversight Authority while the Justice minister is expected to restart the stalled appointments to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission which aborted in Parliament last December. In March, Kibaki rejected a Bill on county governments arguing it violated the Constitution. The Speaker is to rule on whether this rejection was itself unconstitutional before allowing Parliament to debate the presidential memorandum containing the rejected Bill.

The Tenth Parliament remains deeply divided between supporters and opponents of the Prime Minister, with the International Criminal Court suspects controlling the larger share of the MPs.

It broke up in March when allies of the two suspects tabled a contested document that alleges a conspiracy to detain them and try Kibaki over post-election violence.