Jubilee’s ‘tyranny of numbers’ shaken as CORD MPs shoot down NGO Bill

Civil society members when they protested last week in Nairobi against proposals to curtail their operations.  [PHOTO: FILE/STANDARD].

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU

Kenya: The Jubilee coalition suffered its first major defeat in Parliament when MPs voted to reject all the repressive amendments contained in the Statute Law (Miscellaneous amendments) Bill, 2013.

The opposition MPs, who had during debate, asked the Majority Leader in the National Assembly Aden Duale to withdraw the Bill, mobilised and got the numbers to defeat the ruling coalition.

There were 164 MPs in the House, 83 of them voted to reject the amendments; 73 had voted ‘Yes’ to have the Bill debated, while eight MPs abstained. “This therefore means, the motion is lost and cannot be read second time,” said Speaker Justin Muturi as soon as the vote was tabled.

The vote comes as a reprieve to NGOs that were threatened with draconian clauses in the Bill.

The MPs defied Duale, who had appealed to have them approve the Bill, on condition that he will drop all the oppressive clauses. The Bill had recommended changes to 49 laws and all the amendments had to be approved as an omnibus.

Duale had promised the House that the draconian amendments such as the controversial one to the Public Benefits Organisation Act, which seeks to cap the foreign funding at 15 per cent for all NGOs, would be dropped from the Bill ahead of the Third Reading –the final stage before the Bill is sent to President Uhuru Kenyatta for assent.

But that promise is now useless, because the Bill will only come back after six months. Earlier, the Majority Leader agreed with opposition MPs that Attorney General Githu Muigai had approved unconstitutional provisions in the Bill, such as the one in the National Police Service Act that seeks to bar women from top positions in the police service.

The Majority Leader had also rejected a proposal to give eight commissioners of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission permanent jobs.

He was forced to submit to the opposition’s demands after an onslaught that was led by Deputy Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo (Gem) that painted the administration of President Uhuru Kenyatta as retrogressive.

Midiwo told Duale that he should know that NGOs have been key in shoring up Government’s incompetence by providing essential services to rural communities, and if they are starved of funds, then there will be a huge problem.

“That you sit in this House and lead people to kill the NGOs, your people will never forgive you. God will not forgive you… CORD will not forgive you,” said Midiwo.

Illegal proposals

Midiwo told the House that Duale had betrayed the country because he had assured him that the Bill will be dropped, only for him to find it in the schedule of business to be transacted.

“Whatever they want to achieve, only God knows…When will our country move forward if small agreements are not adhered to? There are issues in this Bill that we cannot accept. There are issues which if they pass, this House will live to regret,” said Midiwo. “If I was Duale, who is lucky to have super majority in this House, I will carry everybody along. I will pass laws to help Kenyans, not to hurt Kenyans…please pull this thing out, we’ll deal with it when we come back from recess. Kenya is not going anywhere, let’s go for Christmas,” said Midiwo as he sought to have the Bill withdrawn.

MP John Mbadi (Suba), Christopher Omulele (Luanda), Ken Okoth (Kibra), Peter Kaluma (Homabay Town), Agostinho Neto (Ndhiwa) and even Jubilee MP Rachel Shebesh (Nairobi) termed some of the proposals as illegal and unconstitutional.

Mbadi went ahead and called for the Attorney General to be censured for ‘trying to mislead Parliament” with “unconstitutional proposals”.

“I am disturbed and really shocked that this kind of legislation can come from the Attorney General’s office,” said Mbadi.