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"speaker_name": "Hon. Gethenji",
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"content": "placing advertisements in the daily newspapers on 18th August, 2015 pursuant to Article 118 of the Constitution. The Committee also met the sponsors of the Bill, officers from the Ministry of Defence and several stakeholders whose views were captured in our Report and contained in the Report tabled on the Floor of the House. Among those we interviewed and had sessions with was the Ministry of Defence, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), the Transparency International- Kenya, Parliamentary Initiative Network, Independent Medico-Legal Unit, Mr. Zedekiah Kagame and his team, the Rokibbs Enterprises, the Institute of Social Accountability, the Director and Managing Partner of Winnerman CT, Usalama Reforms Forum and Mr. Thomas Silvester Masare. The Committee held several sessions and I wish to thank the Members some of whom are seated here; the Minority Whip and the Deputy Leader of Minority Party for their diligence and attention paid in those particular hearings. The majority of the Committee Members adopted the Report and this was done on 19th October, 2015.The Amendment Bill is an Act of Parliament to amend the KDF Act No.25 of 2012 to ensure the smooth implementation of the Act. A number of clauses to the Amendment Bill were agreed to by the Committee Members. For brevity I will read the clauses we agreed to before I move to the amendments which were proposed by the Committee Members. We agreed with the title, Clauses 1 and 2. Since the Report is with the House, I will not bore you with the actual details. Members can look at the Report to see the actual clauses referred to in the Bill. Clause 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 35, 36 and 40 were agreed to by members of the Committee. The proposed amendments by the Committee to the Bill are as follows--- I will take time to read the clauses and give the justification for the amendments. Clause 4 as proposed in the Bill seeks to remove the oversight role of Parliament which is contrary to Article 95 of the Constitution. Therefore, the Committee proposed an amendment that seeks to retain the oversight role of the National Assembly. That was a popular amendment because parliamentary oversight is critical and in line with the Constitution. We proposed an amendment to Clause 5 by inserting the words “to an employee of the ministry” immediately after the word “act”. The justification and net effect of that amendment is to give the Cabinet Secretary (CS) the discretion to decide who to delegate his or her powers to. The current provision in the Act has the potential to erode civilian oversight over the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF). However, Clause 5 did not cure the mischief intended to be cured as the amendment is still ambiguous and does not bar the CS from delegating to military officers. The proposed amendment by the Committee, therefore, seeks to cure this by providing that the CS may delegate only to an employee of the military and, therefore, retain that delegation within the civilian authority of the Ministry of Defence. Clause 9 seeks to give service commanders the power to delegate without eroding civilian oversight over KDF. The Committee’s proposed amendment to Clause 9 seeks to ensure that the delegation is in line with the chain of command and does not fall outside the chain of command as would have been the case without that amendment by members of the Committee. Clause 11 seeks to give the President the powers to extend the term of Office of the Chief of Defence Forces, the Vice-Chief of Defence Forces and service commanders by a period not exceeding one year. However, the amendment as it is presently captured may arguably inhibit upward mobility. The concept of preservation of institutional memory is also likely to be abused. The proposed amendment by the Committee seeks to ensure that the extension of the term of 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."
}