Africa MPs target Britain in push for Commonwealth millions and jobs

President Uhuru Kenyatta confers with the speaker of the national assembly Justine Muturi during the opening of the 46th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (Africa region) conference on in Nairobi. [PHOTO: TABITHA OTWORI/STANDARD]

NAIROBI: The curtains came down at a regional parliamentary conference in Nairobi with a vow from the delegates that Britain should not be allowed to have the final say on the assets and funds held by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA).

Mr Justin Muturi, the Speaker of the Kenya National Assembly, who presided over the five-day conference for 18 member states in the Africa region, led the over 200 delegates in pushing for the adoption of the resolution to amend the Constitution of the CPA to shield the assets of the association from Britain.

CPA is a parliamentary lobby that promotes parliamentary practice and democracy. It trains members and helps legislatures in former British colonies boost the aptitude of their members in lawmaking and governance. It has assets estimated at Sh1.4 billion (GBP9 million) and all member countries pay an annual subscription of tens of millions of shillings.

They said when they go to Islamabad, Pakistan in September, they will push for an amendment to make sure that Britain does not get the millions if CPA is deregistered as a charity, and a new body registered to push the objectives.

"There are constitutional and legal challenges for member states appropriating financial resources from their governments to fund a foreign charity...Should CPA be dissolved as a charity, these assets will be distributed to other charities within the UK with similar objectives," said Dr Benjamin Kunbuor, former Majority Leader of Ghana's Parliament, and regional representative for West Africa.

The MPs resolved to "lobby and persuade" their colleagues within CPA in India, South East Asia, and the Carribean to back the amendment to the CPA Constitution, but for the time being, the regional bosses in Africa, should begin the process of "safeguarding the CPA assets and resources".

Muturi led the delegates in pushing for a legal team comprising lawyers and parliamentary clerks to register a new international organization that will take over as soon as the Constitution is amended and the status changed from that of a charity.

"In the event of the dissolution of the Association, any surplus funds shall, at a meeting summoned to determine the matter at or before the time of dissolution, be transferred to a body corporate exercising a similar function in the jurisdiction in which the Secretariat of the Association is established at the time of the dissolution," read the new clause that the African MPs want included in the Constitution.

They said the Constitution had been amended six times and this time round, there was a case for changing the status, and even relocating the headquarters from Britain – a reference to a desire of the African countries to cut the master-servant ties with the former colonial master.

South African and Ghanaian MPs pushed through the motion to change the status of the CPA from that of a charity to an international organization, and said, it was illogical that the Association, for now, prohibited any amendment to the Constitution to change the status.

"... the current status of the Association inhibits its capacity to compete with other Associations for the partner funding, participation in other multilateral formation and that citizens of other Member States cannot obtain jobs within the secretariat unless there are no such qualified persons within the United Kingdom or the European Union," the African lawmakers said in the resolutions adopted yesterday at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi.

The lawmakers set a deadline of end of August this year for all members to pay up, so that come the General Assembly in Pakistan, they will have the numbers to effect the change to the CPA Constitution.

"The CPA conference due in Islamabad in October 2015 is the decisive moment on this issue of the status of the association," said Kunbuor when he addressed the delegates.

"The regional secretariat should understudy the legal regimes of the various countries that have offered to host the headquarters and secretariat of CPA International, with a view to determining whether their laws are in tandem with the principles and objectives of our reform thrust," said the delegates in the resolutions obtained by The Standard.

The MPs also pushed for African governments to develop rural areas so as to stem the rural-urban migration that has given rise to the slums. They also resolved to push the intelligence agencies in Africa to share information and have the troops of respective countries to work together to combat terrorism.

Youth and women empowerment as also on the agenda, with the resolution being cheap loans, increased budgets, and considered policies and laws that will boost the participation of women and youth in nation building.

The theme of the 46th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (Africa Region) Conference is 'Democracy and Development in Africa: Policy Options in the Post-Millennium Development Goals Framework.'