NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 14 – Members of Parliament have hit out at state agencies for issuing conflicting proposals on amendments to various laws before the house.
The lawmakers pointed to a lack of coordination between the government agencies while issuing proposals before the National Government Administration Laws (Amendment Bill), 2023.
The bill is currently being considered by the joint committee of the National Assembly Justice and Legal Affairs Committee (JLAC) and National Security and Administration.
The Attorney General (AG) Justin Muturi has distanced himself from the Bill urging JLAC led by Tharaka MP George Murugara to establish the origin of the Bill.
Further, revelations before the committee made by Interior Principal Secretary Raymond Omollo and Secretary to the Cabinet Mercy Wanjau have denounced some amendments in the bill.
The government officials raised eyebrows on the proposal which sought to include the President’s security advisor in the National Security Council.
JLAC Chair George Murugara questioned the origin of the proposed law as the State Law Office revealed they saw the draft Bill at some point but its origin remains unknown.
“Can you tell us who is the originator of the bill. Have you seen a policy paper or cabinet memo on this bill because that may be the source of the conflict in government, that one hand knows what is happening and the other doesn’t,” said Murugara.
Appearing before the joint committee, President William Ruto’s security advisor Monica Juma rubbished the AGs assertions that he was in the dark in the crafting of the National Government Administration Laws.
“I have with me a document which I was referencing that was signed by the Attorney General because the assumption is that government bills are operationally handled by the AG,”Juma stated.
Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo questioned the legality of the process since the Attorney General had disowned the bill.
“In your letter you say you submit the bill as submitted by the AG, the AG was here and he said he has never seen this bill, who is fooling who? ” he posed.
Dadaab MP Farah Maalim implored the government agencies to put their house in order instead of issuing different proposals that should have been harmonized internally.
“Why are you all talking about the cross purpose? So a presumption was that these are things that likely should be ironed out by the government of the day, in your own internal things, and then you come up with one bill,” Maalim stated.
He added; “Everything here is a lot of confusion. So why don’t you put your government in order and then give us something that essentially is fully internalized that has the support of the government of the day,”
In the legislative drafting process,its starts with a policy that is submitted to Parliament which passes and ratifies it.
It’s then passes it on to the Executive which extracts the issues from the policy they feel require legislation.
The government then involves Office of the Attorney General in drafting a Bill which later ends up in Cabinet where it’s appraised and approved for publication.