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{
"id": 140437,
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"content": "undertaking informed the House that the Commissions of Inquiry Act, Cap 102 of the Laws of Kenya, pursuant to which the Commission which generated the fore-mentioned reports were formed, bars anyone from compelling the President to release a report of any commission formed under the Act. Ms. Karua, in response to a question from the Chair as to whether there is any law that can compel the President to release those reports, informed the House that the public interest is, indeed, the law that would compel the President to do so. It is at this point that that the Chair undertook to study the HANSARD and give an appropriate ruling on the matter. The Chair has now studied the HANSARD and is in a position to give an informed ruling on the matter. Hon. Members, Commissions of Inquiry are established under Section 3(1) of the Commissions of Inquiry Act which reads as follows: âThe President, whenever he considers it advisable to do, may issue a commission under this Act appointing a commissioner or commissioners and authorizing him or them, or any specified quorum, of them to inquire into the conduct of any public officer or the conduct or management of any public body, or into any matter into which an inquiry would, in the opinion of the President, be in the public interest.â It is clear from the provisions cited above that the Commissions of Inquiry are solely established to deal with matters of public nature and for which there is considerable public interest. Upon conclusion of an inquiry, a commission is under an obligation, pursuant to Section 7(1) of the Act to submit a report to the President. This provision reads as follows:- âIt shall be the duty of a commissioner, after making and subscribing the prescribed oath, to make a full, faithful and impartial inquiry into the matter into which he is commissioned to inquire, to conduct the inquiry in accordance with the directions contained in the commission and, in due course, to report to the President in writing the result of the inquiry and the reasons for the conclusions arrived at, and also, if so required by the President, to furnish to the President a full record of the proceedings of the commission.â The Act was meant to be an instrument for the Executive through which matters of considerable public interest would be inquired into. However, the existence of the Act does not preclude this House from carrying its own investigations into any matter of public interest even if such a matter is the subject of another inquiry being undertaken by a commission established under the Act. The Chair has not found a provision in the Act on the production, into the public domain, of a report of a commission of inquiry. It can be argued as indeed, it has been done in this case very ably, by Ms. Karua, that public interest would require that such a report be released into the public domain. However, the Act does not specifically require the President to do so on such consideration or at all. Hon. Members, when the Assistant Minister made an undertaking before this House that he would lay on the Table the reports requested by Ms. Karua, this House and the Chair had every reason to believe that proper consultations had been made within the Executive and that consensus thereby had been reached on the release of the reports to the public after a critical consideration of the applicable law. It is on this understanding that the Chair ordered the Assistant Minister to discharge his undertaking when the matter arose on 25th June, 2009. It would now appear that when the Assistant Minister gave the initial undertaking on 4th June, 2009, he may not have considered the provisions of the Act regarding the issue at hand but nevertheless gave an undertaking that he could"
}