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    "id": 899885,
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    "content": "names. The 15 names then would be sent to the President who would pick eight out of the 15 and send back to Parliament for vetting. Remember when those names then come back to Parliament, the same names would be taken to the same committee of Parliament that interviewed the applicants, which is the Departmental Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity. Then that committee recommends to Parliament for approval. It makes the vetting process just but a drama. Therefore, I think the courts were right to find that Parliament can now not be participating in recruitment of these commissioners. Times have since changed and now a selection panel is proposed. I think there are about four fundamental amendments to the Act that the Committee is proposing. One is to amend Section 17 by repealing it and introducing a new clause which will become a section when we pass the Bill. That also is tied to the First Schedule. The Committee is recommending that we have a selection panel which will have members appointed as follows; one member from the Office of the President, one member from the PSC, one member from the Office of the Attorney-General, one member by the EACC, one member by NGEC and one person nominated by the JSC. This will then form an interview panel which will be the one to convene a meeting and agree, within seven days, to invite applications. The applications will be sent to the PSC. Those applications, once sent to the PSC, this panel will interview and once they interview, they will recommend 15 names to the President out of whom the President will, this time round directly nominate a Chair and seven other members. These eight members will come to Parliament for vetting and then they will go to the NCIC which will vet and make their report available to Parliament and then Parliament approves the eight members or rejects and the process will continue. To me, that is more decent and separates the vetting work of Parliament as an oversight body that oversees the Executive and its functions and work. Another amendment that has been brought is to clearly define that the Vice-Chair, once elected by the eight members in their first meeting, will expressly have the powers to act when the chairperson is absent. I think that was not clear in the law. This has been borrowed from what happened at the IEBC last time. The IEBC Act was amended to accommodate the Vice-Chair to be acting in the absence of the Chair. So, the same has been brought here. The Vice-Chair will be acting. Another amendment is on qualifications. I agree with the Committee. The law as it is today just allowed anybody to be a member of this commission. Now it is clear that you must have a degree to be in this commission so as to appreciate and understand the issues of cohesion, integration, and interview people and even recommend prosecution. You should have basic education that is commensurate with the work that you will do. Experience has now been defined. In the current law, it just says you need to have experience in matters cohesion and integration without specifying what kind of experience. Now it is clear in law that for you to be the chair, you must have five years’ experience. To be any other member of the commission, you must have two years’ experience. It was just said that you must be a person of integrity without mentioning that that integrity should be in line with Chapter Six of the Constitution. Again, this law was passed before we actualised the current Constitution. This will accommodate the provisions of the current Constitution. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposes only. Acertified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}