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    "id": 305367,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/305367/?format=api",
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    "content": "Committee with other stakeholders from both the Kenya Law Reform and our own Legal Department in Parliament. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, to begin with, I would probably need to explain that delegated legislations are laws that are made other than those that are made by the Parliament of the day. For example, in Kenya in 2010 this House made probably about some several dozen Acts of Parliament. There were 200 delegated legislations that were produced by either Ministers, local authorities, State corporations, et cetera . Statutory instrument is an instrument made directly or indirectly under an Act by an entity other than Parliament. The examples of statutory instruments include by-laws, orders, ordinance rules and regulations. Upon forming this Committee we then had the new Constitution which in a way revolutionized the entire legislation-making process and particularly the making of statutory instruments. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, Article 94 (5) of the Constitution provides the role of Parliament and states:- “No person or body, other than Parliament, has the power to make provision having the force of law in Kenya except under authority conferred by this Constitution or by legislation.” Sub-Article 6 of the same Article says:- “An Act of Parliament, or legislation of a county that confers on any State organ, State officer or person the authority to make provision having the force of law in Kenya, as contemplated in clause (5), shall expressly specify the purpose and objectives for which the authority is conferred, the limits of that authority, the nature and scope of the law that may be made and the principles and standards applicable to the law made under the authority.” Before, our Constitution was not as clear as this. The Constitution is now clearer in stating that, that conferment of the authority must declare its objective limits. This is very important because as the Committee on Delegated Legislation, the bulk of the work that has been brought on our table has been in relation to authorities to whom Parliament has conferred the right to make some delegated legislation. They have either gone beyond their mandate or have made provisions that have been done without consultation. That in essence is where our biggest problem has been. We as Parliament cannot abdicate our authority or control to the Executive in the making of delegated legislation that we in the end do not scrutinise. Having said that, the experience that our committee has had in the last three or four years since we were established has been that a lot of the problems with delegated legislation is that the authorities making them are making them without consultation with the stakeholders. They are even making provisions that should be covered in the parent legislation other than in a subsidiary legislation. Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, we realized that the problem emanates from Chapter 2 of the Laws of Kenya which provides:- “All rules and regulations made under an Act shall, unless a contrary intention appears in the Act, be laid before the National Assembly without unreasonable delay---” The catch is “unreasonable delay”. When you ask somebody to do something without unreasonable delay and you do not provide penalties, it is just a loophole to ensure that they do not do it because nothing will happen. This rule further states that if"
}