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{
    "id": 539746,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/539746/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 164,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. Kaluma",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 1565,
        "legal_name": "George Peter Opondo Kaluma",
        "slug": "george-peter-opondo-kaluma"
    },
    "content": "Thank you for the compliments. I also thank hon. Millie Odhiambo, my niece for recognising that there is something I have taken time to know and write about. Today is a landmark day in the area of administrative law and administrative actions in the country. Let me give compliments to a few people who have made it possible for us to reach where we can talk of a Bill. When I left the Kenya School of Law I took a lot of interest in this subject. You will remember it was very difficult to get court decisions on administrative law or judicial review as we explicitly call it. Permit me to use this occasion to thank the hon. Justice Ringera. I am told lately he is serving humanity in the area of law somewhere other than Kenya. When I think of today and this area of law I feel very sad that when Justice Ringera sought to be appointed to the Supreme Court, some people had the temerity to say he should not serve there, but they had a wrong sense of entitlement. That is a judge who helped us nearly singlehandedly together with others to develop the area of administrative law, in terms of how we deal with administrative actions and judicial review. Before I go to the substance of the Bill let me mourn the fact that Justice Nyamu is no longer serving in the Judiciary. I will be confirming to the House in a short while that if it were not for Judge Nyamu, the several grounds of judicial review that we are sorting here today and we are talking about would have not been developed. These are: The public law principle of fairness, the doctrine of proportionality that you see them alluding to vaguely in this Bill and issues like legitimate expectations. Those grounds of judicial reviews and court interventions against administrative actions were developed by Judge Nyamu, Justice Emukule and Judge Warsame in the Court of Appeal wherever they are. We take occasions such as this to recognise the efforts that they made to put Kenya where it is in terms of law and administrative actions. Let me thank the people of Kenya. The area of judicial review has a long history in this country. However, if it were not for the people of Kenya putting it in Article 47 of the Constitution that an Act of Parliament specific to fair administrative action will be legislated, we would not be here. As early as 1956, we domesticated the administration of justice system of England, as provided in the Miscellaneous Provisions Act of 1938. That is the law governing the practice of securing fair administrative actions in the country to date. Therefore, there is a reason for thanking the originator of the Motion for bringing it to the House. I see it under the hand of the Leader of the Majority Party. It is timely. Even in England, whose law we domesticated in 1956, they amended their substantive law on this subject in 1981. Of course, through court decisions, new grounds come up. The scopes of judicial review and administrative law have continued to expand there. We are still tied in Kenya, possibly up to the time we will be having this Bill, to the law as it was in England in 1938. It is a good thing to say that we will have a single law going to talk about the issues of fair administrative actions and judicial review, among other things. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, permit me to go into the substance of this Bill. The idea is good but the foundational conception of the Bill is poor. If you look at Clause 8, for instance, which makes references to the importation of the court supervisory jurisdiction under Article 165(7), it is not what judicial review is about. The supervisory jurisdiction, under Article 165(7), is not the foundation of judicial review. Judicial The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}