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{
    "id": 631568,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/631568/?format=api",
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    "content": "do not understand their mandate. We are, therefore, trying to mentor them to understand the specific responsibilities of each of the said committees. The Chair is a Member and is aware of the nature of the committees on Legal Affairs of the county assemblies. Our objective is to bring clear their mandate. However, their Standing Orders do not provide for a clear framework and procedure in considering the delegated legislations. This Bill will specifically address the problem. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, the quality of legislations in the counties is wanting. The County Assembly Members draft bulky legislations which have details that would otherwise be regulations. Both the private and the Member’s Bills are bulky because they want to capture every detail. We hope that with the passage of this Bill, the county assemblies will be clear on how to enact subsidiary legislations. The Bill provides for the establishment of the County Delegated Legislation Committee. It also provides a clear procedure on how to scrutinise the subsidiary legislations. The Parliament of Kenya too is experiencing a problem in the provision of subsidiary legislations. The challenge is addressed by the Bill so that it does not cascade to the county assemblies. Since these delegated legislations are from the executive arm - the county executive committee members, the county public service boards and any other body with delegated responsibility - they will forward such by-laws to the county assembly committee on delegated legislations to be tabled in the assembly. Once that is forwarded to the Committee, they will table it just like we do at the Senate and those regulations or subsidiary legislations will be forwarded to the Committee. Mr. Deputy Speaker, Sir, we have provided the criteria that will be followed by the county assemblies in terms of scrutinizing legislations. It will include asking themselves whether the legislation actually conforms to the Constitution. Many issues have been raised with regard to some of the Bills that have been passed in county assemblies and they do not even conform to the Constitution of Kenya. We know that there exists a clear dichotomy in terms of the functions of national and county governments. We have witnessed situations where county assemblies legislate on a matter which does not fall within their mandate. Therefore, it is important that they must ensure that they conform to the provisions of the Constitution whether we are talking about subsidiary legislation or the actual county legislation. The other one is to ensure that those subsidiary legislations do not infringe on the fundamental rights and freedoms of the public. We have seen county assemblies developing legislations that are very weird. One county assembly in this country sat and tried to enact a legislation describing how people should dress.For example, the length of skirts that women should wear. That kind of legislation, obviously, infringes on fundamental rights and freedoms of the public. Therefore, we have put that as part of the criteria that as county assemblies scrutinize these assemblies, they should ascertain whether those legislations infringe on fundamental rights and freedoms. The other criterion is to ascertain whether the contents of the Bill, in the opinion of the Committee, should have been properly dealt with within the subsidiary legislations or the Act. There is always a danger where you have an Act of Parliament – this is a problem at the national level –and many provisions. However, at the stage of making The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes"
}