Somebody to confirm that we quorate. We do. Proceed.

Hon. Speaker, I beg to lay the following Papers on the Table of the House:- Sessional Paper No.5 of 2014 on the National Policy for Peace Building and Conflict Management, June, 2014. Sessional Paper No.9 of 2013 on National Cohesion and Integration, September, 2013 to be referred to the Joint Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunity. The National Treasury Report on the annual public debt for the period July, 2012 to June, 2013. 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.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries achievements for the period 1st July, 2013 to 30th June, 2014 prepared pursuant to Article 153(4)(b) of the Constitution. The Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements of the Justice, National Cohesion and Constitutional Affairs for the year ended 30th June, 2013 and the Certificate of the Auditor-General therein. The Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements of Constituencies Development Fund (CDF) for the year ended 30th June, 2013 and the Certificate of the Auditor-General therein. The Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements of the Kenya Film Commission for the year ended 30th June, 2013 and the Certificate of the Auditor-General therein. The Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements of the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics for the year ended 30th June, 2013 and the Certificate of the Auditor-General therein. The Report of the Auditor-General on the Financial Statements of the Higher Education Loans Board for the year ended 30th June, 2013 and the Certificate of the Auditor-General therein.

The Sessional Paper No.5 of 2014 on the National Policy for Peace Building and Conflict Management is referred to the Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security. The Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries achievements for the period 1st July, 2013 to 30th June, 2014 is referred to the Departmental Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Co-operatives to deal with as appropriate. The Sessional Paper No.9 of 2013 on National Cohesion and Integration is referred to the Joint Committee on National Cohesion and Equal Opportunities, the Committee chaired by hon. Johnson Sakaja, who I cannot see in the House. Obviously, if he was in the House, given his size, I would notice him. But the report is referred there. Hon. Maina Kamanda, I am told you have a report on some tour.

Hon. Speaker, I beg to lay the following Paper on the Table of the House:- Report of the Departmental Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing on a study visit to Washington, DC, United States, from 13th to 21st May, 2014.

Very well! Of course, any other Committee that may have travelled anywhere outside Kenya for whatever reasons, let them bring a Report to tell us what is it that they learnt - if anything at all, if they think it is beneficial to this House, so that we avoid being associated with joy-riders.

Yes, hon. Kajuju!

Hon. Speaker, I beg to lay the following Paper on the Table of the House:- The Report of the Committee on Regional Integration on the Consideration of the East African Legislative Assembly Reports of:- (i) The Committee on Communication, Trade and Investments on Single Customs Territory. (ii) The Report of the Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources on the Second Parliamentarians Workshop on Climate Change. 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.

(iii) The Report of the Committee on Accounts on Internal Audit Systems of East African Community Institutions. (iv) The Report of the Committee on General Purpose on the East African Community – Annual Report for the period 2011-2012. (v) The Budget for the East African Community for the financial year 2014/205.

Thank you, hon. Speaker.

Next Order!

Hon. Speaker, I beg to give notice of the following Motion:- THAT, this House adopts the Report of the Committee on Regional Integration on the consideration of the East African Legislative Assembly Reports of:- (i) The Committee on Communication, Trade and Investments on Single Customs Territory.

(ii) The Report of the Committee on Agriculture, Tourism and Natural Resources on the Second Parliamentarians Workshop on Climate Change. (iii) The Report of the Committee on Accounts (on Internal Audit Systems) of East African Community Institutions. (iv) The Report of the Committee on General Purpose on the East African Community (Annual Report for the period 2011-2012). (v) The Budget for the East African Community for the financial year 2014/205; laid on the Table of the House on Thursday, 31st July, 2014. Thank you, hon. Speaker.

Hon. Members, before we go to the next Order, I wish to recognise the presence of pupils from Immaculate Heart of Mary Academy, Nerkwo, and those from Kaptumut Primary School, who are seated on the Speaker’s Gallery. Both teams are from Marakwet West Constituency.

Next Order!

Leader of the Majority, could you respond to the first one?

Hon. Speaker, I am ready but I cannot see hon. David Ouma Ochieng of Ugenya in the Chamber. I know that we left the Chamber very late last night. The condition in which he left was not very good. Now that he is not around, I do not know whether, as per the practice, you should drop the Statement request, so that I can go back with my response. I even called him in the morning and told him that his Statement will be coming up this afternoon. Having told him so, he should have looked at the Order Paper, which is accessible through the internet. 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.

So, I seek your direction. I am ready with the response, but I cannot see hon. Ochieng in the Chamber.

Those of us who were with him earlier – for the better part of the morning – know that he was a very active striker for the National Assembly Football Team against the Senate team. Nevertheless, since he is not present, the response will just be tabled.

What is out of order, hon. Kathuri?

Hon. Speaker, most of us were keenly waiting for this Report because boda boda issues touch on us seriously as Members of Parliament. So, even though you have ruled on the matter, which I really appreciate, there is a request as to whether you could give us a few minutes to ventilate on the Report. Maybe, hon. Ochieng can find us in the process.

No! No! No! This is not the business of the House. There is nothing to ventilate on. Our practice has been that when a Member is not in the House, we just have the Report tabled and proceed.

Hon. Members, I also want to recognise the presence of pupils from Karigiri Primary School from Mbeere North Constituency, seated in the Public Gallery.

Yes, Chairperson of Transport and Public Works Committee.

Hon. Speaker, hon. (Dr.) James Murgor requested for a Statement from my Committee regarding the status of tarmac roads in the country.

Is the Member in the Chamber?

Yes, hon. Speaker. The hon. Member wanted the following:- (a) a list of the number of roads which were approved for tarmacking in the country in the last three financial years; (b) the amount of funds that were allocated to each road in financial years 2011/2012, 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 and the roads that have been completed to-date; and, (c) the status of Iten-Bulgar Road in Keiyo North Constituency, including reasons for delays in its completion and plans in place to complete the particular road.

Hon. Speaker, the Ministry has submitted the list of the roads approved for tarmacking in the last three financial years and the three implementing road agencies, namely; the Kenya Rural Roads Authority (KERRA), the Kenya National Highway Authority (KeNHA) and the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA). We have attached the annexure because the list is long. I am happy to say that the hon. Member attended our Committee sittings with the Ministry officials and carried some of the annexure.

The Iten-Bulgar Road, Road D329 is 12.2 kilometres long, all of which are in Keiyo Constituency. The project was awarded to Q-Construction Company on 15th September, 2011. The initial contract period was 15 months. The contract sum was 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.

Kshs656, 510,497. The earth works and drainage structures are complete. The progress was 49.83 per cent as at June, 2014 against a lapsed period of 29 months. (d) over the last three financial years, the project has not had adequate funding as indicated in 2011/2012. The project was given Kshs85,000,000 in 2012/2013, Kshs53,469,660 in 2013/2014 and Kshs.122,000,000. The project has already now taken a total of Kshs260,469,660. At the beginning of the last financial year, there was no budgetary allocation. An allocation of Kshs122,000,000 in the last financial year 2013/2014 to that road was only received at the supplementary budget that we passed the other day and the remaining work is planned to be completed this financial year over a period of 6-12 months, depending on the weather of that particular place.

Hon. Murgor.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. I would like first to thank the Chair of the Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing for inviting me to his Committee where most of my questions were addressed. But there is one small clarification which I would like to be given.

I realize from the figures that I have that the road is supposed to cost Kshs.656 million. Out of that amount, Kshs.260 million has been paid to the contractor. What I would like to know is: How much has been put into that road this year and whether the total amount remaining has been allocated to the road, so that it can be completed this year? I know they have given that assurance that it will take 6 to 12 months. But I believe, without money, that job will not be completed.

Thank you, hon. Speaker.

Hon. David Kangongo, you also want to find out something about the same road?

Thank you, hon. Speaker. I would also like the Chairman to clarify on the same road. There is a road coming from Chesegon connecting with the same road hon. Murgor is talking about, which is being constructed by Intex. I remember last year in the last session, requesting that those guys from Intex should go back because they were constructing on the hilly side of the constituency and there were rocks falling down on the hill. I lost one constituent because of those falling rocks and I remember the Chairman telling me that they are going to do something. So, I want to find out from him what he has done so far up to now?

Very well. Hon. Kamanda.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. Let me start with the last Speaker. It is true we met here with the hon. Member and we agreed we will find time both of us and go the Ministry to see those officers. As of now, this is another question that I cannot address.

On the allocation of money that is remaining to that road, I want the Member to appreciate that for a long time - for almost one year - this was an abandoned project. It is only the other day that we managed to get Kshs122 million for that road. The Ministry has not rolled out the 2014/2015 projects for next year and so, I may not be able to tell him exactly what is the allocation for the next financial year.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. The only thing I would like, if possible, is for the Chair of the Committee on Transport, Public Works and Housing to look for 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.

those figures and probably pass them to us, so that we know whether this road is going to be completed or not.

Thank you, hon. Speaker.

I will do that hon. Speaker.

Hon. Members, I want to encourage that those of you who may be having distinguished visitors from their constituencies, before the House sits, to get in touch with the Office of the Clerk so that they may be recognized, instead of giving you an opportunity to give us stories about them. I wish to announce also the presence in the Speakers Gallery, pupils from Upper Hill Primary School from Isiolo North Constituency and those from Xaverian Primary School from Kisumu Central Constituency.

( Applause )

The Chair of the Committee on Health.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. I am also ready to respond to a Statement regarding deployment of nursing staff to internship in hospitals which was sought by hon. Jude Njomo, MP Kiambu Constituency. However, I realize that hon. Jude Njomo, is not in the House. So, I seek your guidance.

Hon. Jude Njomo.

Can we hear from hon. Kamanda, once again, on the Statement sought by hon. Leonard Sang?

Thank you, hon. Speaker. Hon. Leonard Sang, MP, requested for a Statement from my Committee regarding the status of tarmacked roads in the country but, in particular, he was concerned about the following roads: Sotik-Cheplanget- Cheborgei-Roret and Litein-Cheborgei-Kibugat roads in Bureti Constituency. The Member wanted to know:-

(i) the status of work done on the above roads in terms of the percentage of completion of the construction;

ii) circumstances under which works on the said roads have been delayed; and,

iii) the expected date of completion of the construction of the above roads.

Hon. Speaker, I beg to answer as follows:-

(i) The Sotik-Cheplanget-Cheborgei-Roret-Sigowet Road Project was awarded to M/s Spencon Kenya Ltd at a contract sum of Kshs.3,149,152,168.90. The scope of works is for improvement to bitumen standards of the 420-kilometre road. Out of this, the section between Sotik to Cheplanget - five kilometers - was done through force account and is completed to bitumen standards. 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.

The Litein-Cheborgei-Kibugat Road section has been designed. The section of this road between Litein to Cheborgei - six kilometers - has been included in the contract for Sotik-Cheplanget-Cheborgei-Roret-Sigowet. This makes the total road under the contract for improvement to bitumen standards to be 48 kilometers. The section from Cheborgei to Kibugat will be considered later as funds become available. I want to report that this morning, I was with officers from the Ministry and they have also placed the remaining 15 kilometres under the annuity; the programme that the Ministry is undertaking. Even the 15 kilometres will be part of the progress works.

For the contracted road section, the overall progress of the work is at 47.8 per cent. The length of the road completed up to bitumen standard is 13 kilometres, inclusive of the section done through the force account.

Hon. Speaker, I also want to appreciate the work that has been done by the Committee led by the Chair. I want to confirm that I attended one of their meetings and we were told what the Chair is going through. The only challenge is that we have waited for that construction to start for a very long time. The Ministry confirmed that they were starting it very soon. We had asked the issue of Sotik-Cheplanget-Cheborgei- Roreti-Sigowet Road and Leiten-Cheborgei-Kibugat and the Ministry has confirmed that they are going to work on it.

You are okay? No clarification?

Yes, hon. Speaker.

Very well. It looks like that Committee works like the real Executive. Leader of the Majority, we have considered the plight of hon. David Ochieng who was playing the striker’s role this morning for the National Assembly team. Given that we know he ran so much and made so many attempts in scoring, it is only fair that we give him a chance to get a response.

Hon. Speaker, despite being a serious player for the National Assembly, we need to change our referee. How can we draw with the Senate? That is a House that we have been calling the House of the elders and I am told the results are not very pleasing. As per the tradition in the World Cup, whoever is the referee should resign before we withdraw our team.

Thank you so much, hon. Speaker. I want to thank the Leader of the Majority Party. When hon. Duale is sober, he does a good job. But most of the times, he is not sober. This time round, he is very sober and I am happy with what he has done. I also want to invite him to join us in the pitch next time. Your colleagues, hon. Kajuju and hon. Chege were there. You were the only one missing and, probably, that is why we lost. I have these clarifications to be made by hon. Duale. He said very ably that from 2006 when the Government brought down the taxes for motorcycles, there has been an exponential increase in the number of motorcycle riders. What has the Government done to ensure--- The statement is saying that NTSA will direct driving schools and so on. When will this be done? Is there a timeline? We are talking about seven years down the line. Maybe, he knows that, currently, the biggest number of accidents in this country is as a result of boda bodas. Out of the 44,000 boda boda riders indicated here, more than half of them do not have driving licences because the costs are prohibitive. Could the Government, through the Leader of the Majority Party, tell us when they will reduce the fee of acquiring a motorcycle licence? I also want a clarification on the contribution of this sector to the economy. How much is the Government ploughing back to ensure that the sector runs smoothly?

Hon. Speaker, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Leader of the Majority Party for that elaborate response. Since NTSA is collecting a lot of money from the alcoblows, as they draft the guidelines for training, will they consider doing that free of charge? The population using those boda bodas as a means of survival consists of very young boys who cannot afford to pay the Government a fee for training. Will they consider subsidizing the insurance policies? That is because when those guys get accidents, they are never compensated because only, say, 10 per cent of them are able to pay the insurance policy.

Hon. Speaker, I want to thank the Leader of the Majority Party for answering this in time, although he has not answered my question about Chepchoina, which is now running into four weeks.

Order, hon. Members! The honorable Leader of the Minority Party and hon. Shabbir Shakeel, even if you must consult, please, allow others to follow the proceedings. Please, lower your level of decibels.

Hon. Speaker, in almost every major hospital in this country, there is a ward called “ Boda Boda Ward. I want to find out from the Leader of the Majority Party what are the Government’s plans with regard to those hospitals? Could NTSA, from what they collect, support our health facilities so that they also support the injured boda boda patients who mainly suffer from severe fractures and other injuries?

Hon. Speaker, I want to thank the Leader of the Majority Party for the information he has brought before the House. However, has the Government got any 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.

plans of investing and creating lanes for boda bodas ? You will agree with me that the

when overloaded, move at very low speeds and they ride in the middle of the road. That is why they cause accidents. Do we really have plans to construct lanes for them? Initially, there were no boda bodas in our roads. But now, they have come onto our roads like a storm. They over-crowd the roads and that is why we get accidents and the “ Boda Boda wards.” Let us mitigate and curb those accidents so that we do not invest in wards, but in saving those boys from accidents.

Let us allow the Leader of the Majority Party to respond to those clarifications. I can see there are quite a number of people who have interest in the matter.

Hon. Speaker, hon. David Ochieng raised the issue of the new regulations, curriculum, training, testing, licencing and offering subsidies. He asked how long this will take. I can confirm that this should be in place within the next six months. I will follow that with NTSA. He also asked how the Government is ploughing back the huge revenue generated from that sub-sector. I am sure that is done through construction of roads and creating lanes for boda boda operators. Under the Jubilee Government, in a new infrastructure master-plan, there will be lanes for boda bodas . Hon. Kathuri asked something about subsidies.

Hon. Speaker, the Leader of the Minority Party is trying to resolve something in the House. He should have done that in his office. It is something between him and the Member for Kisumu---

Allow the Leader of the Majority Party to make his point. Why do you not go and sit next to honorable---

Hon. Shakeel Shabbir, you solve coalition matters in the Office of the Leader of the Minority Party and not in the Chamber. When he goes back to the office, go and talk to him. That time, you will address all the matters concerning Members. Hon. Kathuri asked about the guidelines and price. We can use part of the CDF money to train boda boda riders. Yes, it is allowed in the Act. For the insurance policy, that is very competitive. It is a liberalized market. The insurance industry in Kenya is very competitive and the rates are very good. Hon. Pukose talked of a “ Boda Boda ward”. We should not think about that in the future. We want to reduce those accidents. We want to make sure that the law is followed. The riders must be licensed and the passengers must wear the helmets and the reflector jackets. We need to reduce the accidents, whether it is on the highways, the railway or the airports. So, instead of creating more “ Boda Boda wards” we should be closing them in my opinion. However, NTSA should plough back some of their monies in their social corporate responsibilities. Hon. Iringo asked about creating lanes. If you look at the new system, the Thika Superhighway and the current roads being constructed in urban centers, there are lanes for boda bodas . This should be done also in the rural part of the country. There should be 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.

pathways for boda bodas and pedestrians while the main roads remain for motor vehicles. So, we can assure hon. Iringo that the roads that are going to be constructed in future will have lanes. We also want boda bodas to respect the rules.

Hon. Speaker, I watched how boda boda operators behave in the city of Accra in Ghana and in Rwanda on a documentary. That is not what happens in the streets of Nairobi when the lights are working. You will see the boda boda guys--- They should behave the way the motor vehicles behave as far as road regulations are concerned. They should be concerned with the lives of the passengers that they carry. They should allow their passengers to wear helmets and to wear reflective jackets.

Thank you.

Hon. Members, I think we better go to hon. (Ms.) Nyamai. Is the Member who sought the Statement in the House? Where is hon. Njomo? Is he is not for the second time, The Statement is dropped and he should forever shut his mouth about it.

We have many quests. Allow me to announce the presence in the Speaker’s Gallery, pupils from Lanet Umoja Primary School from Bahati Constituency.

Hon. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order No.44(2)(a), on behalf of the House Business Committee (HBC), I rise to give the following Statement regarding the business appearing before the House the week beginning Tuesday, 5th August, 2014.

Since Tuesday, 29th July 2014 was a public holiday, the HBC did not meet. Therefore, this Statement is based on the projections made by the Committee the previous week. In this regard, on Tuesday morning, the House is expected to consider the Second Reading of the following Bills:- (i) The Statute Law Miscellaneous (Amendment) Bill, Bill No.24 of 2014, if not concluded today. (ii) The Mining Bill, 2014. (iii) The Finance Bill, 2014. (iv) The Prohibition of Anti-Personnel Mines Bill, 2014. (v) The Transfer of Prisoners Bill, 2014. On Wednesday morning, we will continue with Ordinary Bills sponsored by Private members including:- (i) The Order of Precedence Bill, 2014. (ii) The Children (Amendment) Bill, 2014. (iii) The Diabetics Management Bill, 2014. And in the afternoon, it is hoped that we will consider:- (i) The Committee of the Whole House on the Victim Protection Bill, 2013, which is a constitutional Bill with a 27th August, 2014 deadline. (ii) The Kenya Qualifications Framework Bill, 2013. 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.

Other Bills will also be considered for Second Reading. On the same week, we will consider three reports from the Committee on Delegated Legislation on the various statutory instruments submitted last week. The House is also expected to debate the Annual Report to Parliament on the state of national security submitted by His Excellency President Uhuru, EGH.

Without anticipating debate on Order No.10, out of the three constitutional Bills that have been published, only the Persons Deprived of Liberty Bill, 2014, does not concern county governments. In this regard, it is our hope that we can fast-track the Bill since its passage will not involve the other House. Regarding the Environmental Management Coordination (Amendment) Bill, 2014, the Public Service Values and Principles Bill 2014 and, indeed, the other unpublished constitutional Bills, I have no doubt that the Committee on Implementation of the Constitution of this House will be briefing the House at an appropriate time on the proposed roadmap for the enactment of the said Bills.

Finally, the HBC will meet on Tuesday, 5th August, 2014 at the rise of the House to consider business for the rest of the week. I now wish to lay the Statement on the Table of the House.

Very well! Also, through the Office of the Serjeant-at-Arms, we want to acknowledge the presence, in the Public Gallery, of 40 members from Thumaita ACK Church from Gichugu Constituency.

Hoja ya nidhamu, mhe. Spika. Kufuatana na Kanuni No.44, ningetaka kuguzia swala ambalo limekuwa katika vichwa vya habari na katika magazeti kuhusu hali yangu ambayo imesemwa nina bunduki. Inadaiwa kwamba nilitoa bunduki na kutaka kumpiga risasi mfanyabiashara mmoja. Nataka kusema kwamba huo ni uongo mtupu. Mimi sijawahi kuwa na bunduki. Sijawahi kupewa leseni ya kubeba bunduki na sijui kutumia bunduki. Nataka niseme kwamba haya yamefanyika katika eneo la Bunge langu ambapo kumekuwa na mzozo wa ardhi ambayo Marehemu Wangari Maathai alikuwa amesimamisha ujenzi wake. Tarehe 11th May, nikiwa na Mbunge, hon. Mutemi tukiwa kule Dagoretti, niliitwa kwa sababu lile shamba lilikuwa limeingiwa na vijana kutoka eneo langu la Bunge. Walikuwa kadiri ya vijana kumi. Nilipoingia pale, wale niliwakuta pale, wawili wa vijana hao walitoa bunduki na alipotaka kunipiga risasi, yule mlinzi wangu aliingilia kati. Alitoa bunduki yake na kukawa na sitofahamu hadi yule mtu akarudisha bunduki yake mfukoni. Huyo mfanyabiashara anadai kwamba analindwa na polisi na akataja majina ya wakubwa. Alimtaja mkubwa wa CID ambaye nilienda kumwona. Mkubwa wa CID, Bw. Muhoro akakataa. Akasema mtu yeyote ambaye ni mwarifu lazima akamatwe na ashtakiwe.

Gazeti la Nation – na hii si mara ya kwanza – limekuwa na nia ya kuniharibia jina. Leo hii, maisha yangu, naambiwa kwamba yamo hatarini. Nataka niombe--- Kwa sababu ni kawaida, ikiwepo kwamba ni Mbunge anatajwa kwa kitu chochote kile, inakuwa kwamba ni hali ya kutengeneza pesa kupitia kwa gazeti. Mimi nikiwa hapa nahuzunika sana! Mimi ni baba; ni bwana na ni Mheshimiwa wa eneo langu la uwakilishi Bungeni la Dagoretti North. Gazeti limekuwa ndilo askari, mahakama ya kutuma watu 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.

katika jela. Naomba kwamba hili Bunge - na ninaongea Kiswahili kwa sababu nataka watu wangu wanielewe--- Kumekuwa na hali ya taharuki kule Dagoretti. Wanasema Mheshimiwa anataka kuuawa ama yeye ndiye anataka kuuwa mtu. Naomba kuuliza haya maswali kwa sababu kulikuwa na vyombo vingine ambavyo vilishika hayo mambo na vikanunuliwa, lakini nilipata ile clip kuonyesha vile alivyotoa bunduki na ku cock – karibu kunipiga risasi. Ningeuawa siku hiyo singekuwa katika Bunge hili. Nashukuru Mungu kwa sababu siku yangu haikuwa imefika.

Mhe. Spika, huyo mtu anasema kwamba yeye amepewa walinzi wawili na hakuna mtu atakayemshitua na anatembea Jiji hili lote. Kwa vile hili ni Bunge la kutengeza sheria, ninaomba lisaidie Wakenya wengine. Mimi nitajitetetea leo katika Bunge hili. Lakini itakuwaje kwa yule ambaye hawezi kujitetea katika Bunge hili ama kwingine?

Nimesikia kwamba mfanyabiashara anayeitwa Ashok Shah ametajwa kwingi. Naomba kwamba sheria ichukue mkondo wake. Naomba pia Mkuu wa Mashtaka ya Umma afanye kazi yake kwa sababu tangu tarehe 11 mwezi wa tano mpaka leo, hakuna kitu ambacho kimefanyika.

Mhe. Spika, kwa vile inawezekana ikawa leo ni mimi na kesho ni mwingine aliye hapa, naomba Bunge hili lichukue hatua. Nataka kuwaonya wale watangazaji wa NationNewspaper kwamba nitachukua hatua thabiti kuhakikisha kwamba haki imetendeka.

Ahsante.

Hon. Members, hon. Arati Simba approached the Chair and said that he wanted to make a Personal Statement. As you all know, in terms of Standing Order No.84, there is no debate on a Personal Statement. Therefore, proceed to the next Order.

Include those hon. Members who are upstanding like the Member for Nyeri County. Do not trot all over. The business remaining with regard to the Climate Change Bill is for the Question to be put. I accordingly proceed to do that.

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.

Hon. Speaker, I need your guidance and direction before you put the Question on the Kenya National Aids Authority Bill, National Assembly Bill No.2 of 2014. There are two Bills before this House and they look very similar. One is from the Committee and it is called “The Kenya National Aids Authority Bill, 2014” while the other one is from hon. Jared Opiyo which reads, “The Kenya Aids Control Authority Bill”.

Hon. Speaker, this House cannot waste public resources. Members of this House cannot also have the privilege to enact law in whichever form they want. I seek for your direction that before these two Bills come to the House for the Third Reading, the Chair of the Committee must consult with the Member and one harmonized Bill is brought before the House. We look very bad in the eyes of the public that we can pass two similar Bills in content and both are forming two Aids Control Authorities. Which Bill will be assented to unless there are two different countries that we are making laws for? One will use the law that has been brought by hon. Jared Opiyo and the other one will use the law that has been brought by the Committee. I hope the Chair or the Vice-Chair of the Departmental Committee on Health can give direction, if they are here. Hon. Speaker, I need your direction on this matter.

I want to hear from the Chair of the Departmental Committee on Health. Those two Bills bear almost the same title and are substantially the same. Where are you?

I am here, hon. Speaker.

You are not supposed to be sitting there. You are hiding. You are supposed to be sitting where you are visible. That is the corner for those who do not want to be seen.

Thank you very much, hon. Speaker for giving me an opportunity to respond to this matter. When this Bill was read the First Time in this House, I rose to inform the House that another Bill with more or less the same form was being worked on by the Departmental Committee on Health.

This Bill had also come much earlier in the Tenth Parliament. However, after the two Bills were referred to the Departmental Committee on Health, we made a decision as a Committee that the Bill that was introduced by hon. Jared Opiyo - since it came to the House before the Bill that the Departmental Committee on Health was working on - we support it. In line with that, we have worked on the amendments. Yesterday, I was here and I seconded the Bill after it was moved by hon. Jared Opiyo. We have agreed, as a 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.

Committee, that we will bring amendments and support that Bill so that we enact a Bill which will be of use to the people living with HIV/AIDS in this country, and also come up with a trust fund that will support them.

Hon Speaker, I thank you very much for giving me an opportunity to respond to this.

Very well. Then I think there is nothing out of order that hon. John Mbadi might want to address us on if it was to do with that. The Chair of the Departmental Committee on Health is in agreement with hon. Jared Opiyo. I think the matter has been explained sufficiently and does not require the intervention of hon. John Mbadi. Then we should proceed to do what we must do.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. I beg to move the following Motion:- THAT, pursuant to the provisions of Standing Order No.120, this House resolves to reduce the publication period of the following Bills from 14 to five days; being Bills that ought to be passed before August 26th 2014: The Public Service (Values and Principles) Bill, National Assembly Bill No.29 of 2014. The Persons Deprived of Liberty Bill, National Assembly Bill No.30 of 2014. The Environmental Management and Coordination (Amendment) Bill, National Assembly Bill No.31 of 2014.

Hon. Speaker, it is the role of the National Assembly, pursuant to Article 261 of the Constitution, to enact the various legislation required to implement the new Constitution and specifically those that are set out in Schedule Five of the Constitution. Hon. Speaker, the three Bills whose period is sought to be reduced are among the Bills that have a deadline of 27th August, 2014. The reason why we are seeking for reduction of time is because as of today, we do not have adequate time to allow the timelines to run as stated in the Standing Orders and we require this reduction so that the House can meet the deadlines set out by 27th of August. Hon. Speaker, it is important to also help the National Assembly to appreciate also the background for this. The responsibility of presenting this legislation to Parliament, other than the National Assembly, also rests with other stakeholders or key players who include the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC), the Attorney-General as well as the line ministries. Hon. Speaker, we had our last session as the Committee on the Implementation of the Constitution (CIOC) with those stakeholders on 10th of July 2014, which is this month. During that session, it emerged quite clearly that the relevant Bills – that is the 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.

Public Service Bill – had already gone through the process. It had already been done by the relevant Ministry. They had referred it to the Attorney-General who had in turn referred it to CIC, who had, therefore, finished and had referred to the Cabinet for ratification or approval. It was at that stage where assurances were given that before long, the Bill will be released by the Cabinet for publication and presentation to Parliament. As the situation turned out, those Bills were forwarded to Parliament last week and they were immediately published and that is where Parliament’s responsibility to ensure that they are matured by 27th of August begins. It is quite clear that these timelines are too strict and too short for Parliament to comply, given that we need public participation. We need to involve the committees of the House and that is why we are saying that time is not adequate and, therefore, we are proposing to reduce the timeline of publication of the Bill from 15 to five days, so that we can expedite the process. Hon. Speaker, what I have stated with regard to the Public Service Bill also applies to the Persons Deprived of Liberty Bill as well as the Environmental Management and Coordination (Amendment) Bill. All of them were published last week and the responsibility of Parliament equally applies and the delay is, therefore, squarely within the realm of the Executive. When we sought to get the explanation for this, we are very sure--- Even in your rulings severally, you have clearly indicated that we need to actually ask the Executive to expedite the draft Bill for us to pass it within the specific timelines. Hon. Speaker, we have constantly held meetings with the Attorney-General and the other stakeholders and they have actually cited challenges of complying in terms of them being unable for one reason or another to come up with the draft Bills. However, at least, for these three, we are now assured that they have brought them to Parliament and we are now on schedule to ensure that they are implemented. Even the Leader of the Majority Party has also taken the initiative to actually also speak with the Executive with a view to urging them to expedite with regard to meeting of that deadline. Hon. Speaker, it appears that there is a challenge emanating from the transition process and the Executive has also cited pressure of work even in the Cabinet. We believe, trust and hope that those excuses are going to become a matter of the past but, this time round, we are absolutely caught up within those challenges of meeting timelines and Parliament has to actually assist by seeking this accommodation by reducing the timeline. Hon. Speaker, we know there are also other Bills that are even fairing worse than these ones and we intend to come to Parliament to make the relevant application after we have confirmed that we have received all the draft Bills. However, for these Bills, we already have them. They have already been published meaning that they are no longer within the hands and control of the Executive and we are required to expedite the process of meeting the deadline of 27th August. The Bills are not really very complex. Each Bill seeks to effect changes in its various areas. The Public Service Bill seeks to amend the principles of public service as set out in Article 232 of the Constitution. The Persons Deprived of Liberty Bill seeks to enforce the constitutional rights to fair treatment of people who are deprived of liberty, pursuant to Article 51(9) of the Constitution. With regard to the Environmental Management and Coordination (Amendment) Bill, it seeks to enforce Article 72 with regard to enforcement of environmental rights. Therefore, these are very key Bills. There 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.

are those specific timelines under Schedule Five and we urge the House to support this Motion. I beg to move and ask my colleague, the Leader of the Majority Party, to second.

Hon. Speaker, I beg to support and second this Procedural Motion. These two Bills – the Environmental Management and Coordination (Amendment) Bill, 2014 and the Public Service (Values and Principles) Bill, 2014 – relate to county governments and the National Assembly should do its part before the Bills are passed to the Senate. That is the core of the Procedural Motion. The Environmental Management and Coordination (Amendment) Bill 2014 is a voluminous Bill and it seeks to amend the current Environmental Management and Coordination Act of 1999, while the Public Service (Values and Principles) Bill 2014 is as a result of an Act of Parliament falling this year, being the sixth year. This is among the Bills that have constitutional deadlines. It is seeking to give effect to a provision within the Constitution cited by the Chair of CIOC, which is Article 232 of the Constitution, regarding the values and principles of public services. So, I want to make it very clear that under the presidential system the stakeholders involved in any legislation are bigger than the Executive. The Executive is just one of the stakeholders; this Parliament will not accept to rush Bills when we feel, from advice and written communication of the Chair of CIC, the Law Reform Commission and the Attorney General and other stake holders, that Bills still needs to be taken through stakeholder participation. That is why as the Chair said, it is our duty to deal with the ones that are ready and pass them on to the Senate. It will be upon the Senate to decide whether to comply with August 27th deadline or not. Those which are still at the stakeholder participation stage will come back to the House, and we seek extension of time. These three Bills, plus the Bill of hon. (Ms) Odhiambo-Mabona, which has fallen within the category of constitutional Bills--- We felt that if we reduce the publication period, then our Committees can burn the midnight oil and the House can dispose of them before August 27th and pass them to the Senate through a message; the Senate has an obligation just like the National Assembly. If they do not comply with August 27the deadline--- I hope my colleagues out there know the repercussions. A person can go to court and that might be an easier way of dissolving the Senate. I am just trying to advise on what lies ahead. That is why the Chair of the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee has brought a procedural Motion. I am sure that similar leadership in the other House alive to the fact that the repercussions are very serious if either of the Houses does not meet the constitutional deadline of August 27th. I beg to second.

Thank you hon. Speaker I beg to oppose this procedural Motion. I think it is the responsibility of this House to urge for time to be extended, especially in the case of the Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act (EMCA). I did rise last week and talked about the issue of quality and consistency of the output that we are producing in this House. If the time was to be extended, I would be returning the 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.

Environmental Management and Co-ordination (Amendment) Bill to the drafters for the purposes of taking a different route to the Bill.

The amendments are so extensive that it would be prudent to ask for a repeal of the current EMCA and come up with a new law instead of the amendment Bill. We need 21 days for public participation and reporting to this House by committees. The 21 days from today will take us to 20th August. That means that we will give the public a maximum of seven days to give us written input. This is a time when the EMCA must comply with the fact that our extractive industry, the oil, gas and mining sector, has not been well articulated in our environmental management and co-ordination activities. It would be irresponsible on our part to reduce the publication period and not to receive public input on this Bill, yet we have an option of getting three quarters of the membership of this House grant an extension of time. Even if I put away all the work that we have in the Committee, I will not be confident that I will do justice to this voluminous Bill.

With those few remarks, I really want to plead with the Leader of Majority Party. Let us take the route of extending time, so that we better this Bill rather than shortening the process.

With those few remarks, I beg to oppose.

Thank you hon. Speaker. The Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee has a responsibility to work on behalf of this House to ensure that the Bills that are needed to implement the Constitution, especially those set out in the Schedule to the Constitution, are brought to the House within a record time. Looking at the three Bills for which we are required to reduce the publication period--- To me, Public Service is one of those areas of contention in this country in terms of inclusivity and how best we should manage the public sector without allowing public service employees to be victimized and harassed. That is a Bill on which this House requires time to seriously look into.

I cannot overemphasize what hon. Amina Abdala has spoken to. When the quality of the Bills that we pass in this House becomes a subject of public debate, it is this House that takes the blame. We know very well that the process of generating Bills involves getting a lot of contributions from many players. As we make a decision in this House, we should look at the implications. I would, therefore, urge that this House seriously opposes the reduction of the publication period and gives this Bill sufficient time.

It does us no harm, really, to extend time by one month, so that we end up with quality Bills. If we extend time, then this House should go on recess; by the time we come back committees will have looked at these Bills, and then we engage on these Bills appropriately. Finally, allow me to raise two important issues to the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee. Without casting aspersions I know hon. Baiya, who is a good friend of mine--- I worked with him; I sat with him in this Committee in the last Parliament, and he knows very well that this is one Committee that is clearly provided for in the Constitution of Kenya. There are two things that I think this Committee should do for us. One, there are certain Bills that need to be generated; they have a timeframe of five years, but there is nothing wrong with passing those Bills now. An example is the 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.

Bill that we require to reform what used to be called the Provincial Administration. I think this House needs to dispose of this subject and decide how we integrate the so called Provincial Administration into the new system. I would urge the Chair to look into that. Finally, looking at the functions of this Committee, I tend to think that it is narrowing its functions to only the first responsibility they have in the Constitution; that responsibility is preparation of legislation required by the Constitution. But there is a more fundamental responsibility, in my, view placed on this Committee, but I do not see this Committee exercising it. That is the devolution of powers and functions to the counties under the legislation contemplated in Section 15 of the Schedule. As a country we have a problem with devolution of functions. The health function is a problem; there is the issue of the road sector. There are other issues which are not so clear. This House has been complaining about lack of clarity in the functions that have been devolved to the counties. Functions are not only given to the Senate, but are also with the National Assembly, which has clearly given them to this Committee. I have never heard any report from CIOC on the devolution of functions and how the counties are performing, yet this is clearly spelt out in the Constitution. To some extent, everyone thinks that the National Assembly has no responsibility in devolution. I would challenge the Committee, through the Chair, to take its work seriously; we gave it this responsibility as a House; please do it on our behalf, so that we know what functions have been devolved and what functions have not been devolved for lack of clarity. We are the National Assembly. We are not regional assemblies; we are not in charge of a certain corner of this country. We need to know what is going on in the counties. Thank you hon. Speaker and I oppose this Motion to reduce the publication period of the three Bills.

Hon. Members, I have a number of Members who have placed requests, but I also know that there are some whose names are on the machine because they came too early. If I call you and your request was not to speak to this Motion, remember you are removed from the list. If everybody wants to speak to this Motion--- If you know you have placed your request, I will follow the list.

Thank you hon. Speaker for allowing me to contribute to this Procedural Motion.

Hon. Members, I am following the list. You have told me that everybody who has placed their request wants to speak to this Motion. It is good to know, so that I do not remove you when you did not want to do anything to this Motion.

Hon. Speaker, I stand to oppose this Motion. For a long time, Parliament has been taken for a ride. The CIOC and the CIC need to stick to timelines. In this country, there has been a culture of people doing things the last minute. If it is announced that we are supposed to do something on a certain date, people will always delay even when we have all the time. They will wait until the last minute and then rush into doing things. This culture has to change. We must change things. We are leaders and we must lead from the front. Since we opened this House people knew that time would come when we would need to discuss these Bills. How come they were not brought in time? How come they are being brought in the last minute and we want to 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.

rush them? In the public eye, we are passing Bills that do not meet thresholds. We have not interrogated these Bills with time. We have not studied these things and come up with Bills for posterity. We make laws for the generations to come. So, we do not want to be rushed.

I oppose this Motion.

The next one is temporary card No.1, whatever that is. It is a Member. It is indicated “temporary card No.1”.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. I am working on it and in due course, I will be hon. Member for Awendo, hon. Jared Opiyo. I want to take this opportunity to oppose this Motion from the outset. The work of this august House must be taken seriously. There is a tendency where when certain Bills that have serious issues to be scrutinized come to the Floor of this House, the House is not given enough time to scrutinize and look through the issues in those Bills.

The constitutional timelines are known. The agencies that are charged with the responsibility of coming up with these Bills are in place. These people are in office and they earn salaries. What makes them not work within the timelines that have been given? They have to up their game and let Parliament do its work according to the provisions of the Constitution. The CIOC and some agencies, or commissions, related to it are in the public domain; they continuously engage in what is supposed to be in the domain of the courts of this country. Instead of coming up with Bills that will address the various aspects of the Constitution that were given to them, they continuously engage Parliament and other organs of the State in non-issues and irrelevancies. The CIOC should leave up to our expectations and let Parliament do its work. I oppose.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. Allow me to also oppose this effort to reduce the publication period by four days. Kenyans out there place a lot of trust in this House. This noble House has become a House of procrastinators. We have timelines and guidelines within which to perform our roles. I do not see a reason why, with all due respect to the Chair of the CIOC, we need to reduce the number of days. We need to wake up as a House. Everybody has a lot of trust and expectations in this House. So, reducing the number of days just because we want to rush and go on recess or beat the deadline of 27th August does not make sense.

We do not want to be passing Bills in this country that we are going to regret. Kenyans are looking at us and they want to see Members of this House mess and then laugh at it. So, with all due respect to the Chair of the CIOC, I wish to join my colleagues in opposing this effort to reduce the number of days.

Hon. Speaker, I also stand to oppose the reduction of time. Initially, I was of the view that we should reduce time, but I am persuaded by the arguments put forward by my colleagues that, indeed, there is no hurry to pass these Bills. These very important Bills must be given enough time for public participation in their formulation.

Given what the Chair of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources has said, the Bill that she has before her needs a lot of attention to finalize. For us to produce quality Bills in this House, we have to go the full stretch of the time and allow 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.

maximum participation. We need to get contributions from all the stakeholders. I agree with hon. Mbadi that, indeed, matters of devolution attract more serious attention. When I say this, I look at how, for example, the Kenya Urban Roads Authority (KURA) money is used. In particular, I am incensed by the way it is used in my constituency. There seems to be no responsibility at all. The Member of Parliament is not involved in KURA’s activities unlike in KERRA. We also find county government rudderless. You also find KURA a bull in a China shop. They do things as they wish. There is no accountability. I tried to find out how money had been used. I asked for an e-mail on tenders that had been issued. I asked for bills of quantities but nothing was forthcoming. Those are some of the areas that we need to address. As a nation, we cannot allow plunder and misuse of money. As a House, we have a responsibility to streamline those grey areas. So, I would like to echo what my friend, hon. Mbadi, said. We also need to address these very important areas, so that, as a nation, we do not say we have devolution when the arrangement has no benefit to our people. We must have a properly planned devolution. I am one of the people who support devolution because of its importance. The money for road projects in my constituency should be with the governor rather than with some faceless persons---

Hon. Kimaru, I just want to remind you of the provisions of Standing Order No.106 on relevance. The Motion seeks to reduce the publication period of the three Bills. So, devolution is not part of the debate before the House. Anybody else going to contribute to the Motion, in order to avoid me cutting you short, stick to the question of whether we should reduce the publication period of the Bills or not.

Hon. Speaker, I appreciate your intervention. I just wanted to put things into perspective. I went that long route but the short and long of my argument is that the publication period of the Bills should not be reduced. Thank you, hon. Speaker.

Yes, hon. Peter Kaluma!

Thank you, hon. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak on this Motion. I join other hon. Members of this House who have opposed the proposed reduction of time. There is no good reason that has been adduced for the proposal. Instead, we have been told that since the passage of the Constitution of Kenya in August, 2010, the Commission that is in charge, and the various Government authorities that ought to be dealing with them, have not been dealing with them. May I indicate that there is a good reason as to why the people of Kenya, in making their Constitution, put in a schedule in relation to a number of laws they wanted enacted within set timelines? We are being put in a trap by the bodies charged with facilitating this process, so that we may pass shoddy legislations. The same people out there say that Parliament is passing bad laws, or that Parliament is working at night, or that Parliament is not poring through laws with the zeal that we should have. They say that Parliament is passing laws which are not qualitative. At the time for blame those bodies will not come out and confirm that they share responsibility with us. The trap is that we can be rushed to ignore the ideal of public participation in these processes. This is a practice in our processes of legislation. We want the views of Kenyans. May I indicate that the marriage law that we passed a short while ago enjoyed a lot of public participation, leading to the radical amendments that we ultimately passed? 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.

Despite the castigation that preceded the passage of that particular law, ultimately Kenyans agreed that it was a good thing when they realised that very many sectors of the community were involved. So, the ideal of public participation is critical, more so considering the fact that ours is a democracy. It is not something that we can just wish away at the threat that Parliament will be dissolved. May I end by saying that it is not automatic that if these Bills are not passed, Parliament will stand dissolved? There are two options for this process. The Chair of the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee should explore them as already proposed by the Chair of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources. One option is under Article 261(1), which provides for extension of time by the necessary number of Members of the House dealing with the matter, so that we can properly consider each of these Bills. Hon. Speaker, that is important because we may rush and, in the long run, get caught in the vicious circle that instead of generating new laws, we find ourselves revising Bills which we passed in a hurry. It would be a bigger waste of time than extending the time and dealing with the Bills properly. The other leeway is in Article 261(5) and (6). It is not automatic that if we do not pass these Bills we are going home. A citizen of this country will go to court. The court will hear that citizen. We will have an opportunity, as the legislation-making body, to explain why there was delay. The courts have discretion, after considering everything, to set new timelines for publication of the Bills. Of course, such consideration may take into account how much time the National Assembly needs, with the participation of Kenyans, to pass a Bill that is qualitative. So, this talk that we are going home should not be used to intimidate this House into passing bad laws. With those many remarks, I strenuously oppose the Motion and beg that we do the proper thing.

Yes, hon. Joseph M’eruaki!

Thank you, hon. Speaker. I rise to oppose the Motion for the fact that we are reduced to being reactionary in many cases. It has been known for long that these Bills should be passed by 27th August but they have been brought here rather late. Since some people are sleeping on their jobs, we need to extend the time. It is high time people took responsibility for not doing what they are supposed to do. If somebody did his job well, they should have forwarded these Bills earlier. Had they done so, we would not be having to reduce the Bills’ publication period. Hon. Speaker, the issues that have been raised by the Chair of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources are fundamental. In fact, as a country, we are struggling with very many issues related to the environment. Due to this, we end up being rushed. We pass some laws but when it comes to their implementation, it is realised that the implications of the laws are too much. So, the price that we eventually pay becomes very high. With those few remarks, I beg to oppose the proposal. Let there be a proposal to extend the time, so that we can have adequate time to interrogate the Bills and come up with laws that are in line with the reality facing our country at the moment. Thank you, hon. Speaker.

Let us have the other Joseph. 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.

Thank you very much, hon. Speaker. I also stand to oppose the proposed reduction of the publication period for these Bills. Quite a number of my colleagues have stated facts. If we rush these Bills through the House, we will eventually have to bring them back to the House for amendments through a Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, which is used to sneak in certain things. It is not appropriate for us to reduce the publication period for these Bills. Let us take the example of the Public Service. We have not even restructured the Civil Service as required by the Constitution, but in the proposed Bill, we want to talk about values and principles. In the other Bill, we have issues to do with people deprived of liberties. These are very many people. We need to know who they are. There must be public participation. Talking of environmental management and co-ordination, our environment has been degraded. As the Chair of the Committee said, it is important that we give this Bill proper consideration, instead of rushing it through the House. Hon. Speaker, given the mood of the hon. Members present, it is as if the Motion is dead. I oppose. You can even put the Question right away.

Yes, hon. Isaac Mwaura!

Thank you, hon. Speaker. Public participation is very important when it comes to making of laws. In fact, the Mover of the Motion in a way is contradicting the very essence of passing of these laws according to the time line, because that is one of the values and principles; people should participate in matters that concern them. Right now we have so many expectations in Kenyans with regard to how the environment is supposed to be managed.

This House has just put the question and passed the Climate Change Bill, and we also have the Mining Bill. All these are actually intertwined because they all talk about the environment. If the Chair of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources feels that she does not have enough time to actually go through the amendments as proposed, we do not want a situation where some very crafty amendments are actually passed in the name of meeting a constitutional deadline.

The committee that is proposing actually has been aware that National Assembly needed to pass some laws by the 27th August of a certain year. Now we are supposed to rush Bills simply because we have all of a sudden realized that we need to do something. It is also true that this House is receiving a lot of legislative proposals and our numbers have gone up. Maybe it is time we also started debating whether we should have an extra sitting, possibly on a Thursday morning; this is also the result of such proposals. The House Business Committee may not know what to prioritize, or remove from the Order Paper.

I think I am going to bring an amendment to the Order Paper to say that we also consider extending our sitting time, so that we can dispense with all matters. Committees should also see the value of bringing out some of the work that they are supposed to have executed. 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.

I vehemently oppose and, as a Member said, we also need to go on recess and come back when we are fresh. In fact, the idea of saying that we shall go home--- We always go home every evening; that should not be used to intimidate us into passing low quality legislation.

Thank you, hon. Speaker.

Hon. Kathuri Murungi.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. I stand to oppose this Motion. As a member of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources in this House, from the outset I have realized that there has been no communication between our Chair and the Chair of the Committee on the Constitution Implementation Oversight Committee (CIOC). These Bills, especially the one to amend EMCA, should have come here before this Motion got to the House. This Act, as it is at the moment, is very controversial and even implementing it has been a problem since its enactment in 1999. Now, we are faced with an opportunity to review this EMCA. The rushing that we are seeing will not give us enough time to engage in substantial public consultation. Most of the activities which need EMCA attention, especially at Schedule IV of it have been devolved to the county governments. We need time to really freshen up this Act and come up with a good law that will help us to manage our environment, as a good environment is a right of every citizen in this country. I oppose this and say that we need time. Maybe the Chairperson can take another route, so that she can, maybe, get time to enable us complete this Bill. Thank you, hon. Speaker.

Hon. Gumbo.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. Just like all the other speakers who spoke before me, I stand to oppose the proposal to reduce the publication period from 14 days to 5 days. I know that all the three Bills, whose publication time has been proposed for increase, are important laws, and they will result in important roles. I am more particularly concerned with the proposal to reduce the publication period of the National Public Service Values and Principle Bill (National Assembly Bill No.29 of 2014). I say this because this Bill, in my view, is what intends to actualize Article 232 of our Constitution; IK think we forget a lot of the problems that we face in Kenya today are actually resident in what Article 232 of our Constitution intends to achieve. Allow me to bring Members up to speed by highlighting what is spelt out in this Article. It states that the values and principles of public service shall include:- (a) high standards of professional ethics; you will realize that in our country today professional ethics - I speak here as somebody who went through the route of professional practice before coming here - are truly lacking. Another value that is envisaged is, (b) efficient, effective and economic use of resources; that is a passive issue. (c) responsive, prompt, effective, impartial and equitable provision of services; (d) involvement of people in the process of policy making; (e) accountability for administrative acts; (f) transparency and provision to the public of timely, accurate information; 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.

(g) subject to paragraphs (h) and (i), fair completion and merit as the basis of appointments and promotions. Hon. Speaker, I can go on and on. In my view rushing such an important Bill will not do justice to our country. I am convinced - I have spoken about this before - that if this Bill is done well, it will not only help in entrenching cohesion and integration in our country, but will also go a long way in helping Kenya start bold steps towards attaining societal and universal conviviality among our people. There is no gainsaying that the ethnic tensions in our country--- This reality has been one of the major drawbacks in our progress. Even if some of us at individual level have been agitating for the enactment of this law, if such an important Bill can be rushed merely to achieve a timeline that we, as a House, can come together to vary, I think we will not be doing justice to our society. Like all those who spoke before me, I strongly oppose the Procedural Motion to reduce from 14 days to 5 days the time for publication of this Bill. Again, some of us take time to read Bills; it is one of the things that I have noticed in nearly all the Bills that have come to this House and some Members have spoken on it. We see some mistakes in Bills that would be eliminated if only there was sufficient time; some of them even relate to grammar, spelling and simple use of the English language. These things go unnoticed because the time we have to go through the Bills and involve the public in enacting laws is not sufficient. With those remarks I strongly oppose. Thank you, hon. Speaker.

Hon. Members, I think everybody has heard what needs to be done. I better just put the question. Hon. Baiya, just reply; we have heard many contributions.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. I wish to thank all the hon. Members who have contributed to this Motion, and for the various positions they have really taken. But the most important thing for them to bear in mind is that it is the responsibility of Parliament to deal with these Bills within the constitutional framework. We have time constraints and were seeking to reduce time for publication, so that the rest of the time between now and 27th August, 2014, could be used properly for purposes of processing these Bills. The consequences for not allowing this Motion to pass will be that we will be required to take other measures, which include raising two thirds of hon. Members to support this amendment, failure to which Parliament may find itself unable to comply with its constitutional obligation, which is to pass these Bills. Therefore, I wish to urge hon. Members, that irrespective of what sentiments they hold, they should evaluate what options we have as National Assembly by 26th August, 2014. With those remarks, I beg to move.

Hon. Members, it looks like even though it is a Procedural Motion, you do not call it so. Can I be given the number of hon. Members present in the House? Check to find out how many hon. Members are in the House.

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Hon. Members, the effect of that is that, we do not go to Order Nos.11, 12 and 13 as appears on the Order Paper. We should go to the next one.

Hon. Speaker, I beg to move:- THAT, the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, National Assembly Bill, No.24, of 2014, be now read a Second Time.

Hon. Speaker, before I go to the Bill, from the outset I want to clarify we have removed the contentious amendments relating to the regulation of funding to NGOs by foreign bodies. Therefore, this Bill does not contain that. Hon. Speaker, I have also written to you and I am going to lay the letter on the Table, indicating my intention to withdraw all amendments relating to the Public Finance Management Act in this Bill. Following consultations, I am informed that these amendments affect county governments. Therefore, they ought to be considered by both Houses. Hon. Members will recall that we dealt with the miscellaneous amendments that affected the county governments last week in a separate Bill which is currently before the Senate. That is the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, Bill No.33 of 2013, which was passed by this House and now it has been sent to the Senate. Therefore, inclusion of particular parts of the Public Finance Management Act was an oversight. I have written to you and I have withdrawn them. Similarly, I will be withdrawing all amendments - I have written to you about them - relating to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Following wide consultations with the stakeholders, I am convinced that the proposed amendments as part of the Bill are either unconstitutional or outrightly unlawful. This is owing to the fact that extradition proceedings are by nature criminal. Under Article 157 (6) (a) of the Constitution:- “The Director of Public Prosecutions shall exercise state powers of prosecution and may:- (a) institute and undertake criminal proceedings against any person before any court---“

Hon. Speaker, I also intend to withdraw that. Further, I will be withdrawing all amendments relating – as I have said earlier –to Public Benefits Organization Act, in this Bill. I have received various submissions to the effect that the proposed amendments in the current form require comprehensive consideration and are not miscellaneous.

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.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, we want to tell all and sundry that the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill is supposed to deal with minor amendments. Those who want to bring comprehensive amendments, the law is very clear on that. You go back to the Act and you bring comprehensive amendments to the Act. This House, and the Committee of this House, are ready under your leadership to deal with that. Therefore, you do not bring a comprehensive amendment in a Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I have received a number of memoranda from different stakeholders raising serious constitutional questions on issues of law on the proposed amendments to the Kenya Defense Forces Act and the National Intelligence Service Act. On these ones I have given the benefit of doubt to the competent Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations. I have since shared my concern with the Chair of that Committee, and I have even forward to him the issues that were raised by stakeholders. I have no doubt that the Committee, under the leadership of the Chairman, hon. Ndung’u Gethenji, will comprehensively address the fears of the stakeholders at an opportune time before the final passage of this Bill. Finally, on my preamble, the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs and other committees are at an advanced stage of preparing a reports. I hope they will lay them on the Table next week, either on Tuesday or Wednesday for or hon. Members to prepare their amendments. Those are the issues that I wanted to state; I have written to you and I will lay the letter on the Table for the House’s record. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill----

Order! Hon. A.B. Duale, just resume your seat briefly. You have spoken well and captured most of the issues that are fairly contentious in this Bill. While listening to you, I just got a little confused because you signed the Bill; should it go on? Should you find yourself in these circumstances, is it not in order that you decline to sign the Bill until some of the issues you think need to be addressed are addressed by the time a Bill comes before hon. Members? You are not kind of speaking against the Bill; you are supporting the Bill. That is one. Secondly, having set the tempo and the mood of this Bill, do you not think that, perhaps, it will work better if the Bill was entirely withdrawn and you work together to a consensus, so that when you introduce it again, it will be in such a form that hon. Members will have a very short discussion on it?

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Bills that come to Parliament come from the Constitution Implementation Committee, the Law Reform Commission, the Attorney-General and the Cabinet. They come through the Legal Department of Parliament that looks at them. I then sign and then they are approved by the Speaker. At that level, very little consultation reaches my office. When you publish a Bill, it becomes a public document for debate. It is after the First Reading that serious memorandum come and I am sure that is what the Constitution envisaged. Also, the 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.

House procedures and the Standing Orders provide for that. Before we go to the Third Reading, the honorable Speaker will given a communication based on my written submission. That is the answer to the first question. On the second one, there are 49 statues which are being amended and the ones I have raised are less than five. With regard to the other statutes, it is for this House, through the committees, to deliberate on them. That is why they have the mandate of legislation. In fact, that is what I am doing, so that Members speak on those 40 statutes that are remaining. Members are encouraged to bring more amendments and further amendments to the current statutes. I want to make it clear to the House that my submission and that one in the report by the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs will guide the House as we go towards the Third Reading of the Bill. I will touch on very key areas. The Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill is keeping in practice with--- Every year we get this kind of law and it deals with minor amendments; these which do not merit the publication of separate Bills and consolidating them into one like this is better. This is the practice of the House. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the Retirement Benefits Act, Cap.197, this Bill proposes to amend it to set a requirement for applicants for registration as a scheme to ensure that the staff are academically and professionally qualified in the appropriate field. The amendment to the Kenya Ports Authority Act, Cap.399, is to extend the application of that Act to include waterways and ports. Currently, waterways and ports are manned by Kenya Railways. For good infrastructure development we decided that the ports and waterways be put under the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) rather than by Kenya Railways. Under the Kenya Airports Authority Act, Cap.395, the Bill proposes to increase the number of independent board members from two to five. Currently you have one person chairing three or four sub committees of the Kenya Airports Authority (KAA). Each committee will now be chaired by an independent board member. If you look at the Postal Corporation of Kenya Act, No.2 of 1998, this Bill proposes to amend it in order to expand its functions. The Bill wants to give the Postal Corporation of Kenya added mandate in terms of electronic money transfers, mobile e- money and many other services. With regard to the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) Act, this Bill proposes to amend that Act to harmonize the provisions on the appointment of the board. We are also reducing the number of board members; the Bill provided for the Chief Executive Officer to be recruited competitively by the board. Concerning the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, 2003, this Bill merely seeks to replace the term “director” with the term “Secretary” as the Chief Executive of the Commission. With regard to the Public Officer Ethics Act, 2003, this Bill proposes to amend it in order to bring in the new terminology of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission as one of the authorities which shall be responsible as referred by the new Act. Concerning the Merchant Shipping Act, 2009, this Bill proposes to amend it in terms of making corrections to some definitions. 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.

The Independent Offices Appointment Act is very important to this House. This Bill proposes to amend that Act in order to provide for the appointment of the next senior most person within the office to perform the function of the office holder in the event a vacancy arises. This will kill the culture where when a vacancy arises a junior person is brought from somewhere and given that job. This amendment is stating that the second person in line must be given that job on a timeframe that the Bill is specifying. That time of 60 days can only be extended by the National Assembly. Therefore, you cannot have a person in acting position for two years. A good example is the CEO of the CDF Board. Unfortunately, he has been acting for the last three-and-a-half years. This is what this law is proposing to rectify. I do not know why somebody should be in an acting position for two or three years. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is an amendment being proposed to the Political Parties Act, 2011. It mainly creates a provision for the appointment of the Registrar of Political Parties and an assistant. The current provision is based on holding of the first general election under the new Constitution. That has been done already, but up to now we do not have a substantive Registrar of Political Parties and a deputy. With regard to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Act, 2011, this Bill seeks to amend that Act in order to empower the Commission to co-operate with foreign governments and international or regional organizations in the performance of their functions. This amendment is giving the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) more powers to directly deal with foreign governments in their pursuit of documents and evidence. It also proposes a provision to give the National Assembly power to play a role in the procedure of the removal of the CEO. This is because it is the same House that approves the appointment of the CEO. Then there is the Public Appointments (Parliamentary) Approval Act, 2011. This was sponsored by hon. Mungatana. Those of us who served in the Appointments Committee when we were vetting the Cabinet Secretaries, must have realized that the timeframe of 14 days sometimes becomes--- The period prescribed for any action is not adequate. We felt that it is only in exceptional cases, and only once, in a parliamentary session can that be varied. If, for example, the Committee’s report is not ready, it has vetted and it needs to do more due diligence--- If they feel they need more time then this proposed amendment allows Parliament to vary the timeframe once in a session. Of course, there are proposed amendments to the Land Registration Act. There is a Public Finance Management Act which I have said is touched on by oversight; it should not be here. There is something on leadership and Integrity Act, 2011. The Bill proposes to amend the Leadership and Integrity Act to include the Attorney-General as a Cabinet Secretary for the purposes of this Act. It imposes a new requirement on wealth declaration by all persons wishing to be appointed to State offices.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is an amendment to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) Act. The commission wants to be transformed to a full time working body instead of the current part-time working that it is. That is for this House to decide. I do not want to talk about the Kenya Defence Forces Act, No.25 of 2012, because I have stated my reservations and I am waiting for the Chairperson or any hon. Member of that Committee, if they are here, to tell the House how far they have 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.

gone with those two Acts, the Kenya Defence Forces Act and the National Intelligence Service (NIS) Act.

Finally, on the amendment touching on the Director of Public Prosecutions, which I have spoken to--- On Public Benefit Organizations, I have spoken about in my preliminary submission.

Lastly, I want to speak about the Civil Aviation Act, 2013. The Bill proposes to amend the Civil Aviation Act to introduce a new designation for the officers appointed under the Act. It also sets out additional matters to be considered during an investigation into an air accident. It also cautions that there is a final report. This is about air safety after the report on our late two brothers. I think I have gone through this, and the other key statutes that require minor amendments.

We feel the committees and the House will enrich them; more amendments might come from individual Members.

I beg to move and ask Hon. Kajuju, the former Vice-Chairperson of the LSK - I do not want to say more than that - to second.

Hon. Musimba, you are an Independent Member; so, when I see you request an intervention, I think something is terribly wrong.

Thank you, Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for catching your eye. I was just calling upon the Leader of the Majority Party because he has not touched on the amendment to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Act.

That is not an issue for a point of order; keep it in your notes because it will form the basis of your discussion. You will say why you think something should have been included or was not included.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am glad that the Leader of the Majority Party is reminding me of the old good days when I used to do litigation and I was the able Vice-Chairperson of the LSK, which I am proud to be a member of to date. I know that you are also a proud member of the LSK; hon. A.B. Duale informs me that he is a key speaker in our retreat in Mombasa on 14th August, 2014. I am waiting to hear what he will have to tell us. I stand to second this Statute Law Miscellaneous (Amendment) Bill with the reservations, of course, that the Leader of the Majority Party has mentioned. I am alive to the fact that part of this Bill is before the Committee that I sit in, the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. The Leader of the Majority Party has acknowledged that the Committee is going to submit a report to this House on the various issues that it has raised on this Bill. As I second this Bill, I think hon. Members should be aware of the fact that a Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill is just a Bill that seeks to rectify minor errors that are in various statutes that have previously been passed by this House. Therefore, amendments should not go into the depth of any law that has already been passed by the House. A Bill of this nature should seek to harmonize the various laws, especially those which were in existence before the passage of our Constitution in 2010. Therefore, that is the lacuna that any Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill should seek to fill, or sort out, in as far as the law and practice are concerned. 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.

In as far as the Criminal Procedure Code is concerned; you will find that it speaks to the issues of bail that have been subjected to the Departmental Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs. We know that the Constitution provides for courts to grant bail unless there are compelling reasons that have been put before the court to show that the court should decline to grant bail. Otherwise, as per the Constitution, no matter the crime that one is alleged to have committed, they are entitled to bail as a matter of right and not as a matter of the discretion of the court. Through an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code we shall be looking at the issues and the conditions which a court should be guided by to decline to grant bail. If you look at the Prisons Act--- I am proud to say that we are seeking to amend the Prisons Act, so that we reflect the provisions of the Power of Mercy Act. I was lucky and honoured by the former President, hon. Mwai Kibaki, to appoint me to serve in the Power of Mercy Committee. The Power of Mercy Committee is established under Article 133 of the Constitution. What used to exist before the Power of Mercy Committee came to be was the Board of Review; there were various challenges that were being encountered by prisoners under the Board of Review. Now that we have the Power of Mercy Committee in existence, all issues about prisoners are looked at to recommend to the President who then is able to grant pardon to prisoners in prison, especially those who have served long terms in prison and have proved that they have reformed so much that they can easily be integrated into the community. Therefore, we are seeking to amend the Prisons Act to be in tandem with Article 133 of the Constitution that sets up the Power of Mercy Committee. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, a look at other Bills that are amended in this Bill shows that the Kenya Airports Authority Act seeks to increase the number of independent board members from two to five. This is in tandem with the principle of inclusivity that is in the Constitution. This is so that we have more members participating in this board for purposes of transparency and accountability. A look at various other Bills that are contained in this Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill like the one that legislates for the Kenya School Law (KSL) tends to give the KSL the legal power to charge its property. I also served the KSL through a nomination of the LSK to the Council of Legal Education (CLE). I am aware that the KSL and now the CLE, which are now separate bodies, they were not able at that point in time to charge properties or to borrow loans using their properties or assets as collateral. What the law is seeking to do is to allow the KSL to borrow property from banks, take loans or use that which they have as security to get loans. I am also alive to the fact that there is limited funding from the Government. So through this amendment, the KSL will have the capacity to acquire property or loans and develop itself in the near future. The Bill seeks to amend the provisions of the Legal Education Act, 2012 to provide that only someone who has had legal education training can serve as the Chairperson of the Council of Legal Education. This Bill seeks to open up the space, so that an advocate who has been practising for 15 years can be appointed, or nominated, to serve as the chairperson of the Council of Legal Education. This means that we shall be looking at a wider experience, so that any other person who is qualified need not to be a professor in a university, or need not to have dealt with legal training to be able to seek to be nominated as the chairperson of the Council of Legal Education Board. 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.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, that amendment also seeks to bring on board various other players, or stakeholders, the Council of Legal Education. It also brings on board the Commission for Higher Education (CHE). It also brings on board the Kenya Sector Alliance. Therefore, this Council will be more consultative; it will bring on board public participation that is in our Constitution.

If you look at the Universities Act, 2012, you will find that the amendments that are proposed only seek to correct various errors that are in that Act. It is minor errors that are being corrected through the amendments. This will also give the Cabinet Secretary power to find constituent colleges of universities that have the capacity and declare them universities. He or she will do that under the Universities (Amendment) Act as it is now.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, there is also the issue of the chancellor of a university. In the unlikely event that the chancellor is unable to perform his duties he will not delegate his powers to any other person. However, through this amendment the chancellor – in the unlikely event that he is incapacitated for whatever reason – will delegate his power to the chairman of the university council, so that none of the functions that are supposed to be performed by the office of the chancellor will stall, or remain unperformed because of the absence the chancellor.

If you look at the other Acts that are proposed to be amended, you will find that most of them only seek that the previous laws comply with the Constitution. I have noted the issues raised in the preamble by the Majority Leader, and second this Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill; it is an omnibus Bill. I would like to say that it is a proper Bill that is before this House. I seek the support of the Members.

I beg to second the Bill.

Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. This is a good Bill, but I would like to flag out the dangers in Bill. The first danger is in the proposed amendment to Chapter 75 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC). There have been many complaints that the courts have been releasing people who ought to be in custody pending the determination of a criminal trial. Before the enactment of the new Constitution there were some offences which did not allow an accused person the right to bail. Those were capital offences that included murder, robbery with violence and treason. So, the police brought this proposed amendment with a view to curing that anomaly.

My take on the proposed amendments is that they do not really seek remedy that issue. Why do I say so? It is because they are vague; they do not specifically state the types of offences under the Penal Code which they apply to. Therefore, I foresee a situation where even if we enact this Bill the way it is, magistrates and judges will still have the discretion to decide who gets bond and who does not.

I am of the view that if we wanted to remedy the problem, which is currently affecting our country, we would to specifically state the offences that should not be bailable. My proposal would be that probably we go back to the position which existed before and provide that where an accused person is charged with specific offences the court may be inclined not to grant bail pending trial. 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.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, another red flag is on the matter pertaining to legal education. There are two Acts which touch on legal education. We have the Kenya School of Law Act, 2012. The second one is the Legal Education Act. The reason I am of the view that these two Acts need to be re-looked at is because they will dilute the calibre of people who will join the legal profession. Under the current laws, before you are admitted to the KSL you need to have minimum requirements or qualifications. These are an aggregate of C+ or its equivalent and score B (plain) in English. If these proposals go through, it will mean that anyone with a law degree from anywhere can be admitted to the KSL notwithstanding what that person got at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). Therefore, there will be a possibility of a person who had an E or a D, but has a degree from I do not know which university joining the legal profession.

You have seen many disciplinary cases against lawyers. I am of the view that that has something to do with the fact that we are admitting people who are not as qualified as we used to have.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want the public to compare our profession with professions like medicine and engineering, which require very strong academic credentials before one is admitted. If you compare their admission requirements with our profession, you will find that we have been progressively reducing the entry points. As a result, this has caused many problems to Kenyans.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, on the same note, to me the greatest problem with the legal profession is that it has become an elite profession. Poor children can no longer access legal education. Why? Because we are charging a lot of money at the Kenya School of Law; we charge about Kshs200,000 and there is no accommodation. I thought this Bill would have brought an amendment to create a scholarship fund to enable poor children access education. Some of us came from rural areas and poor families and we joined the profession. So, if it is an amendment that is going to provide that the Kenya School of Law is going to either waive fees or provide scholarships to poor students to become advocates I will support it; I will be moving an amendment for that one to be captured in this law.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, another area that I would like Members to note is the proposed amendment to the Land Registration Act, 2012. I think this one is a very good amendment and the reason I want to say that is because we have what we call “the Land Control Act” and I have seen people being fleeced because of this Act. When you buy land and you fail to go to the Land Control Board, the Court of Appeal has set a precedent that your transfer or sale is null and void ab initio; you can only recover the purchase price but you cannot recover the land. As a result of that issue so many poor people and litigants have lost land because of the requirement that you must take every transfer pertaining to land to the Land Control Board. So, to the extent that we want to remove that requirement, I am very happy. I think that is one of the best proposals that are contained in this.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, another area of concern is in the area that is clearly denoted in The Kenya School of Government Act. The proposal contained in this Bill. The law proposes to amend The Kenya School of Government Act to expand the functions of the School with respect to reforming the public service, and also to clarifying the functions of the Director-General. I agree with the proposed amendment. The only 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.

issue is that one about the appointments of the alternates. I am of the view that we need to clearly specify who is going to sit in that council rather than retaining the notion about those who are going to become alternate members. Otherwise, we may have a situation where the provision on alternates is abused by the appointing authority.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, finally, I have looked at this law and there is a proposed amendment to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Act of 2011, and also the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act of 2003. I filed a request for a legislative proposal with the office of the Speaker proposing to enhance the penalty for those who will commit grave corruption; I was of the view that we need to have a provision where if you steal more than Kshs1 billion and you should face capital punishment. As to whether Kenya enforces capital punishment that is another issue, but I am of the view that people who have been stealing Kshs1 billion plus--- It is time we make them face capital punishment. If you steal any amount between Kshs100 million and Kshs1 billion you should face life imprisonment. I am of view that this is the time when Members should be supporting my proposal. I intend to have it brought when we will be discussing this Bill at the Committee Stage. I feel it is a minor amendment. It does not per se go to the roots or substantive issues contained in the corruption law, and I am of the view that we need to copy China. China is one of the countries that are dealing with corruption in the best way and the best opportunity to address the issue of corruption is now, by use of this Bill; if my proposal will be accepted by Members, I foresee corruption becoming extinct or near this. Therefore, I ask Members that once I bring my proposed amendment they support its inclusion in this Statute (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2014.

Thank you very much. Member for Rarieda.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to support the proposed Bill. Right from the outset, I want to say that I will be proposing some amendments to this Bill as we go forward, because I think some of the amendments as proposed will actually be unconstitutional. However, going through the minor amendments that have been proposed--- I have looked at the proposed amendment to the Criminal Procedure Code and, even though I am not a lawyer, but I think some aspects of criminality really require common sense. I think the proposed amendments unless looked at critically might be an affront to the Bill of Rights. The proposed amendment to the Retirement Benefits Act is good because employees join retirement benefits schemes to secure their comfort and good standards of living in old age, and also to be able to take care of their responsibilities upon retirement. I think the fact that we are trying to introduce competent managers of the schemes will ensure increased security of the savings. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, turning to the proposal to increase the number of independent board members at Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) from two to five, I think is good. It will, in my view, increase accountability at the Authority. You remember the other day one of the public commissions had a very vindictive report on the operations at KAA. The report was said specifically that the current Managing Director (MD) is in office courtesy of the abnormally high score by one of the board members, who is a Government appointee. In fact, that report says that if the scores of that 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.

appointee were to be removed the current KAA MD would actually have been number four; of course that was out of no fault of her own. I think this increment will increase accountability and make it possible for us to make the board to be able to discharge its functions in an accountable manner to the people of Kenya and in an open and transparent way. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I have looked at the proposed amendment to the Air Passenger and Service Charge Act, and my view is that it is not enough to apportion only the charge for external journeys between the KAA and the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA). I think even the charge for domestic travel should be apportioned. I say this because the KCAA sits in a very awkward position. A lot of people are not aware that KCAA is actually the regulator of the aviation sector, but it faces the very unusual situation where most of the operators in the sector are actually bigger than the regulator and this is very awkward. You look at the issue, for example, of landing fees. At the moment, most of the landing fees go to the KAA, which is nothing more than a facilities manager. Landing is not just the tarmac. In fact the bigger part of landing involves instrumentation. So, really I intend that as we go ahead I will be proposing amendments, so that the apportionment of these fees is bigger because we need to empower regulators. The moment regulators are toothless there is a problem. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the proposed amendment to the Postal Corporation of Kenya Act is a very interesting one. Those of us who went to school in the 1980s will remember that one of the slogans when you went into the post office used say that: “Nothing can replace the post office”. However, we now know that with the advent of e-mails, skype and social media the Postal Corporation of Kenya, or “Posta” as we know it, is actually in danger of being obsolete. I will even be proposing, and we had done it as the Departmental Committee on Energy, Communications and Information, that the Postal Corporation of Kenya be like in other countries where postal corporations actually also engage in passenger services. So, that proposed amendment is good but I will go ahead and propose a further amendment. On the employment Act, discrimination on marital status clearly is un- constitutional and that amendment is good. We proposed amendment to Anti- Counterfeiting Authority. I am of the view that this amendment should not be on this Act. We have had serious problems with this Act. You know for instance the issue of death from alcohol is a result of counterfeiting. I think we need to remove this amendment and do more comprehensive amendments to the Anti- Counterfeiting Act. The proposed amendment to the Salaries and Remuneration Act; clearly, this House must oppose this amendment in total. If you look at the Constitution, the functions of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission are to set a regular review on remuneration and benefits of State officers and advise the national and county governments on the remunerations and benefits of other public servants. What the Salaries and Remuneration Commission has done is consistently wielded outside this mandate, and by making them full time employees we will be giving them the opportunity to raid in the areas which are not within their responsibility. On the proposed amendment to the Political Parties Act; I believe this Act needs more comprehensive amendments. Party discipline is a must if democracy is to be 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.

entrenched in our country. It is not for nothing that Kenya is a multiparty democracy. We see party hopping yet we hold privileged positions on account of our parties. When people come to Parliament and county assemblies and then their loyalty to their parties start waning, I think we need to institute more discipline so that people can respect their parties, unless you are like my good friend, hon. (Dr.) Musimba who chose to fight it out as an independent candidate. If you use the party as a vehicle, you are obligated to respect the beliefs and philosophies of that party throughout the time you will be serving. The proposed amendment of the NIS Act may be good but the amendment should not include any mischievous invasions into the privacy of Kenyans. We know what the NIS has been doing. It presupposes to do a major constitutional function, but what it has been doing over time is to listen in on telephone conversations of Members of Parliament and when people are talking to their girlfriends. This really is not helping our country. If it is not invading the privacy of Kenyans we support it, but if it is meant to invade the privacy of Kenyans, it must not be put. The proposed amendments to the Universities Act; the powers of the Cabinet Secretary to declare constituent colleges, is very prone to abuse. I am speaking here as an engineer. I can tell you at the time we left the university; there was a requirement that for every engineer, you should have four technicians. But as we speak now, you find a situation where you have four engineers to one technician. It has been reversed. Kenya as a developing country needs more technicians than graduates. This idea of turning middle level colleges into constituent universities is something that as a House we must oppose. Lastly, speaking on the National Honours Act, I have spoken to it before. There are Members in this House who came to this House by garnering as much as 70,000votes. But hon. Speaker, there is something I have been totally unable to understand. You compete with somebody in an election, you defeat them, they end up as professional job hunters and finally, they end up in some commission. The next thing you know is that they are Moran of the Burning Spear. Members of Parliament who floored them, not once, twice or even thrice, cannot even get the Head of States Commendation. What are standards of bestowing national honours? I think really somebody who can come to this House is good enough and a hero in his or her own right. If we are to do an amendment, let there be an amendment that any Member of Parliament who comes to this House must be guaranteed a certain level of national honour. We feel very bad that my good friend, hon. Ng’ongo - he likes to talk about it, though I remind him that he was a Minister for only a few weeks. He likes to remind people. He does not even hold a Head of State commendation. The fellow he defeated, the fellow who never even got 2000 votes is holding the title of the Moran of the Burning Spear. What are the standards? There are people who, I am sorry to say, are only known for plundering our country and yet they hold national honours. So, I think we need a more comprehensive amendment of this Act. We have not forced our way here. We are here on account of the approval of the people we represent, and the least that can be done is that we deserve the national honours. I, therefore, wish to support but I will be proposing major amendments to this Act. Thank you, hon. Speaker.

Member for Suba, now that you are sufficiently aroused, can you take from where --- 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.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. I actually wanted to remind my good friend, hon. (Eng) Gumbo, that I was actually a Minister close to nine months. That is quite significant. Actually, if you remember the time of Moi, it used to be even shorter. You could be a Minister for two months. I do not have any award from the State and I have made contributions. Someone who got 2940 votes, to be exact, has such titles. Anyway, thank hon. Speaker. Now, getting back to the point, I have been listening to the Mover of the Bill, the Leader of Majority Party. Looking at the Bill itself because I had time to look at it, actually I find about seven Acts of Parliament in that Bill that I am particularly concerned with. The amendments to those Acts are so significant that they would not be treated as Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments). So, hon. Speaker, I ask myself why I cannot oppose this Bill. I have no reason not to oppose the Bill in its entity. This is a Bill that I cannot support. For good reasons; one, this country for a long time, we fought imperial presidency. Actually, immediately after Independence, we were confronted by a monster called imperial presidency. For so many years and so many decades we fought this monster of imperial presidency until we got a new Constitution in 2010. It was not easy to get that Constitution. Now, through systematic approach; certain decisions made by the Executive, we are rolling back to imperial presidency. I want to say why this is the case. You remember, apart from passing the various amendments to the police acts; this House, due to tyranny of numbers, was forced to again pass various legislations to regulate the media. That is rolling back. As if that is not enough, now through this miscellaneous amendments Bill we are likely to amend two Acts of Parliament, one is the Kenya Defence Forces Act of 2012 and the National Intelligence Service Act of 2012. So, what we are doing is to return this country to dictatorship. I say that because in the Kenya Defence Forces Act that we are amending, we want to remove the provision which would allow Parliament to approve deployment of troops. Certainly, that is unconstitutional. Not only unconstitutional---

Member for Suba, can you point us to that section.

Hon. Speaker, I did a summary, I did not carry the Bill with me. I did not need to carry that huge document with me.

Alright, Proceed.

What I am saying is that when we make such amendments, then what are we doing? First, it is unconstitutional, two; it is not a good practice. There is also a proposed amendment to allow NIS not to seek court order to get to our private property. That I also feel is wrong. As a House, we decided to make that provision in law, so that these bodies that have been misused over the years by the Executive to harass politicians and innocent Kenyans are not used again to abuse those powers. I happy that the Leader of Majority Party did say that he is going to withdraw amendments to the Public Benefits Organizations and the Non- Governmental Organizations. The moment you compromise the civil society; you have already compromised the media in a way. Because of the amendments that we passed in this House, the media can now be threatened not to cover any functions, as it happened to us on Saba Saba with ease and you get away with it. 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.

If you do the same to the civil society, then you are taking this country several steps backwards and we had made good steps forward.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other amendment that I find interesting is the amendment to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission Act, which hon. Gumbo has spoken to. One of the functions of this Commission is to help this country cut on the wage bill. You cannot do that when you are increasing the wage bill yourself. One of the functions of this Commission was to help in setting up the salaries for State officers, which it has done. The only other task remaining is to review the salary structures for other public servants and advise the Government. We are aware that this has been contracted out by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission. They have already hired consultants to do this and theirs is just to receive reports.

Then, what would this Commission be doing in office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day? The possibility is that when these people have nothing to do they are going to interfere with the work of the secretariat. You will find them involved in procurement and the day to day running of the Commission, which was not the intention of the people who passed the various Acts to set up this Commission. It is not even the intention of the Constitution. Therefore, we need to tell the Salaries and Remuneration Commission that they must be part time as we had set it out. There is no compromise on this.

You find that because this Commission has too much time, they even comment on matters that are not their duty. For good reasons though, but that is not their duty. They even say that they are going to jail people who travel out of the country. That is not their duty. Even if MCAs went on foreign trips and it is within their Budget, we can only say that that is wastage of resources and we ask them to behave as leaders, but you cannot threaten elected leaders with taking them to jail yet you know very well that you do not have the powers. It means that you are idle. This is the most idle commission in this country. It is the most idle and most incompetent. I would tell you for a fact that since this Commission came into force, they have not tabulated how much they have helped this country save. Instead, you see a lot of talks and a lot of misinformed positions by the Commission. Now, they come to us asking for more time to do I do not know what. There is no reason at all.

I agree with the amendment to the Political Parties Act because if you look at some of the amendments there, they are meant to remove the role of the Prime Minister, which is non-existent. We do not have a Prime Minister. Initially, for you to hire the Register of the Political Parties, you needed the concurrence of the Prime Minister. That is now not needed. I expected an amendment to help sort out the mess as hon. Gumbo put it, on this indiscipline in our political parties system. If you look at the Constitution on the setting up of the republic, it says very clearly that Kenya shall be a multi-party democracy. So, if we are a multi-party democracy, we need to respect the principles and policies of our political parties. No one forced me to join the ODM. I joined the ODM as a matter of choice. If I wanted to be in another party, I should quit the ODM and go to another party. But sometimes and it is very interesting, you can even hold a party position as big as Chief Whip and you do not believe in that party. How do you whip people to vote in a particular way which you do not believe in? So, we need to respect the political parties’ structure in this country. 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.

The amendments to the Public Finance Management Act, I am happy that the Leader of Majority is saying that he will want to get those amendments removed. However, this leads me to ask a question which you asked the Leader of the Majority. When we get the Bills, are we sure that the office of the Leader of Majority Party has the capacity in terms of personnel and legal staff?

That was very refreshing, but the Member for Suba, do you have the Bill in your hands? Can you pick a copy and just help us finalise the issues which you have canvassed? Look at page 2621 of the Bill. At the bottom of the page, the statute law is proposing to delete Section 8(3). Is that correct?

Yes.

And over the page, it is also proposing to delete Section 8(4). Look with me again at page 2721, which is the Act itself that the statute law intends to delete.

Yes, page 2721.

Go down to Section 8 of the principal Act and look at Section 8, paragraphs 3 and 4. Can I just give you two minutes to make a comment on this?

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, you are right because I had this Bill and I did a lot of work on it, but I left my literature. I did not know this would come today. It is my fault, but from what I said, that is what this section is all about. The parent Act says that where Defence Forces are deployed for any purposes contemplated in sub- sections 1(b) and (c), I remember reading, it is deploying on emergency issues like the one that hon. Duale was referring to in Lamu and the other one is deploying them to maintain peace in the country. That the Cabinet Secretary shall inform the National Assembly promptly and in appropriate detail of first, the reasons for deployment, place where the Defence Forces are being deployed and the number of persons involved. This was a requirement that when you do that, the Cabinet Secretary needs to inform the National Assembly. Now, the moment you remove that, because this Bill is seeking to remove that requirement, it means that if you deploy, you do not need to inform the National Assembly and these details will not be necessary. Is that what this House wants to do? Thank you for taking me there. I just mentioned it but I did not quote directly from the Bill. I do not know whether I have addressed your concerns.

Thank you. Well said. Member for Endebess.

Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for allowing me to contribute to this Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill that has come in an omnibus form. We are talking of amending 42 Acts, which are touching on various areas. This is challenging because you will find that they are contentious and it will not be proper to put all of them together. At the time they will be put to vote, I do not know whether we will be voting per amendment or we will vote for the whole Miscellaneous Act. When I look at the Leadership and Integrity Act, one of the issues that it proposes to do is bar State officers from engaging in public collections in order to avoid abuse of office. This means that hon. Members will not preside even over harambees and engage 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.

in issues that affect the community especially in terms of resource mobilization and all these other issues. So, indirectly, this is a way of taking away responsibility to assist our communities where we come from. If you are a Member of Parliament and you are not able to engage yourself in resource mobilisation for your communities, including collection of money to assist them in harambee and sending children to school, it creates a problem. Your opponent can undertake such activities and at the end of the day take credit for the same, and you will have nothing to say. So, that is an area I would oppose.

Hon. Speaker, I am in agreement with the proposal to competitively recruit the Chief Executive Officer of the NHIF as proposed in the Act. However, the same proposal undermines the second part, which talks of the membership. It excludes other key stakeholders. It excludes serious contributors. The Kenya National Union of Teacher (KNUT), the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), the medical practitioners unions, the Federation of Kenya Employees (FKE) and other serious stakeholders have been excluded. That is not the right way to do it because as much as we want a lean and responsive body, we must also have accountability. The stakeholders must be seriously represented in this body.

In terms of the Act on the advocates, where we are removing the Director of Public Prosecutions from participating as a member of the board, I think it is wrong. The Director of Public Prosecutions is a stakeholder, and he might be able to prosecute an advocate who is found to have seriously breached the law. I think we shall be missing the point because it means that the Director of Public Prosecutions will not have an opportunity to access the evidence that he needs to prosecute an individual. In a way, we shall be making ourselves immune to prosecution and making the work of the Director of Public Prosecutions difficult in terms of accessing evidence that he may need to prosecute an advocate who is found to be culpable. On the amendments of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), in terms of collection of crucial information, this is the right direction because we will be empowering our security intelligence units to be able to access key information. Even in the US, the intelligence service listens to conversations of heads of state from other countries. The Wiki leaks led us to knowing a lot of what happens in other countries. So, I do not think there is anything wrong with our NIS being given the opportunity to access information. If we have to fight serious crime, including terrorism and other security threats facing our country, the NSI should have a right to access such information. In terms of denial of bail---

Member for Endebess, this is another area I want facts. On the matter of listening to people’s telephone conversations, can you point to us which area we are looking at, so that we move away from public rhetoric to issues that are before us? Anyway, I will get you there. Just continue. I do not want to disturb your train of thought.

Hon. Speaker, the other issue is about the Salaries and Remunerations Commission. As clearly pointed out, the drafters of the Constitution felt that it should be a part-time Commission. Why do they want to be full time? What will they be doing? The Ministry of Water is quite devolved. We have the National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation. Go there and find out from the Chief Executive 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.

Officer what they are engaged in. They will tell you that this year they have only Kshs200 million earmarked for critical operations. So, what do they do for the rest of the days, from Monday to Friday? So, we should ask ourselves why the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, having contracted consultants on matters of recruitment and salaries, should want to be in an office where they are paid full salaries but staying from morning until evening with nothing to do or with very little to do? Therefore, that is an area I will vehemently oppose. The other issue is about giving the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission leeway to co-operate with foreign governments or international or regional organisations in the performance of their functions. That is the way to go. That way, we will be giving them the mandate of following up matters in areas where people steal money and bank it abroad. On the Criminal Procedure Code, there is provision for the courts to exercise a right to decline bail on reasonable grounds. This will assist us to decline bail or bonds, unless there are compelling reasons for the accused person not to be released. We have cases of terrorism suspects being taken to prison and the next day, they are out. This provision will, in a way, assist us to combat terrorism. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I hope that the Leader of Majority Party will be able to separate the contentious issues from the good parts that need to be passed by this House. That way, hon. Members will have time to discuss the contentious issues and chart the way forward. This will ensure that the entire Bill is not rejected. With those few remarks, I support the good amendments and oppose those amendments which I think are contentious.

Thank you. However, do not leave this work to the Leader of Majority Party. It is no longer in his hands. He has given it to the House. So, it belongs to the House. It is for you, as the Member for Endebess, to bring amendments on those issues you think should not form part of the law. You may want to consult with the chairpersons of the relevant Departmental Committees but it is also your duty to bring amendments. Yes, Member for Suna East!

Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. I stand to support the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, but I will be bringing some amendments to it. I believe that there are many amendments that are contained in this Bill that are of good value. If I may highlight some of them, there is the National Youth Council Act. I have seen amendments that are going to introduce new Members to the National Youth Council Board. They are from the Kenya Private Sector Alliance, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA). If those people are put in this Board, they are going to be of great help to the youth. Most of the youths are suffering because they do not know how to start business. They could also get funding from NGOs now that they will be sitting with them in the same board. They will also benefit from NACADA because most of our youths are affected by drug abuse.

Another Act which is being amended is the Salaries and Remuneration Act. I do not see why Members of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission should be full time 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.

members. These are people who have been put in place constitutionally just to set the salaries of public officers. Once they set those salaries, they do not have any other business to do. What happens in a situation where in two years they have set all the salaries and the reviews will be made after five years? Are they going to remain in office all that time earning public money and staying without any work? Making them permanent employees is a serious problem that is going to affect the public coffers.

I am very happy about the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act, where it is entrenching the position of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). In this country, the commissions that we have under Chapter 15 need to have very strong secretariats that can run for many years, because commissioners are like board members, they work for a certain period of time and leave. But when we strengthen the secretariat of any commission, the commissioners need to know that their jobs are not full time. The secretariat is the one that does the daily work of the commission. So, by strengthening the position of the CEO and insulating him or her from unnecessary removal from office, it will make the commissions stronger.

Another issue that is very good in the amendment Bill is the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) where we are going to have people who are representing the workers themselves; people who are contributing to that Fund sitting in the board, so that they can deliberate on how health services can be improved.

This is an omnibus Bill that is supposed to make very minor amendments. But, by looking at it there are two or three amendments that I feel should have been brought as amendments to the real Act itself, than putting them here. For example, the National Intelligence Service Act and the Kenya Defence Forces Act. Looking at them in the Bill here they are consuming almost three to four pages and that tells you how strong those amendments are. As I was listening to the Leader of Majority Party, he said that he had written to the Speaker and the Director of Public Prosecutions about the Public Benefits Organizations Act, on the many amendments that he wants to be removed from the Bill. He should have gone ahead and also written on the removal of those two amendments to those Acts. I see some mischief in taking it to the committee, when he has not taken the other ones to the committee. He has received memoranda from the public on all those issues and he has accepted. We should not be seen as people making laws that consolidate power in an individual. We want to have strong institutions that work for this country, unlike putting power to an individual. He can misuse those powers when they are conferred to him. If you look at the amendments that are being made to the National Intelligence Service Act, there are making the Director General of that organization look like a monster. He is going to have so much power that he does not need to consult anyone or talk to anyone. To the extent where that body used to make security report, now they will be making security vetting instead of that report. So, those powers are not good for this country. As much as we need to safeguard our security, we should make sure that we give them powers to make sure that we are secure. But we are giving these powers to human beings who are bound to misuse them. We need to invest these powers in institutions. For example, I can see in the Leadership Act that any person who is supposed to be appointed to a public office should declare in a 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.

form to the commission. You know in this country how institutions are misused. I want to be assured that, that commission is independent of any interference because that can be used politically to bar people from assuming any office in this country. The issue of the political party has been canvassed well here and I agree that we need to have an independent panel, with approval of Parliament, to appoint the Political Parties Registrar. It is good this amendment has been put in place, but even now the office of the Political Parties Registrar does not look like it is functioning. Nothing is happening in this country. Political parties are like political vehicles that are used during elections and discarded once you have assumed office. So, I expected more amendments to strengthen that office so that it can have teeth that can bite. Political parties are important institutions of governance in this country, because they help in the governance of this country and that is why they are funded by State coffers. That is why we passed the Political Parties Fund Act that gives monies to all political parties, whether you are in the Government or opposition. So, that in essence tells you that they are organs of governance. So, I expected we empower the Registrar’s office so that he or she can take action on issues that affect political parties. As you know, there are so many problems with political parties at the moment where we do not respect the political parties that have given us the positions that we enjoy. With those few remarks, I would like to urge the Leader of Majority Party to withdraw the amendments to the National Intelligence Service Act and the Kenya Defence Forces Act, so that we can handle those two amendments separately; by amending the original Act itself or by bringing amendments here separately, instead of putting them in this Bill. Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me a chance.

Alright, thank you. Hon. Member for Homa Bay Town, you can proceed.

Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak to this Bill. You know, the Office of the Leader of Majority Party has better facilities than the offices of the ordinary Members of Parliament and there is a good reason for this. It is the stop over office for most of the legislations coming from Government. It is necessary for that office to look at these Bills and consider whether they are constitutional and where we are dealing with the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, whether really what was taken to the Office of the Leader of Majority Party is dealing with miscellaneous amendments. If you look at the definition; it is an Act of Parliament to make minor amendments to Statute Law. When you have a Bill this size dealing with over 40 legislations in this substantive manner, how does the Leader of Majority Party accede to bringing such a Bill to the House for debate, whether or not the proposals it is making are good, as miscellaneous amendments to the laws? Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, I wanted to use this occasion because really, this is the second time this Bill is coming to the House. The Office of the Speaker also has better facilities; we cannot accept a situation where the facilities availed by law to enable Parliament legislate minor amendments to the laws is then used to prefer very substantive and material amendments to the law. I think the Office of the Speaker should assist on this--- 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.

Member for Homa Bay Town, let us engage a little. You know you are right except that the Standing Orders themselves say that a Bill becomes the property of the House when it is published and read the first time. When you find that the Speaker has the wisdom to even know what has not come before the House, how do you suppose that the Office of the Speaker or the Office of the Leader of Majority Party is able to deal with a proposal which has neither been published nor read a first time?

Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. For the Leader of Majority Party, it is a matter of looking because really the Bill ultimately comes to the House under his name. It should not be a perfunctory process; he just gets any Bill and puts his name. The Leader of Majority Party ought to look at the Bill. If it is the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, is it really a Bill proposing minor amendments to the substantive law? There should be direct communication with the relevant Government office concerned. The constitutionality of legislation are matters the Speaker is entitled, under the relevant Standing Orders, to deal with before Bills come in, so that we do not put the time of Parliament into waste. Or we do not run the risk of imagining we are merely deleting a provision without having to consider the Bill against the parent law. Let me say that there is something fundamental and a good reason why the law proposes that only minor amendments will be undertaken through the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill. The substantive amendments are required to be made within the parent law itself. You need to look at the amendments being proposed against the substantive law. In most cases, you can determine whether that amendment, however minor it may appear on paper, is attacking or is attached to the spirit of that law. You can make a very small amendment or merely just a coma, but really you end up derogating from the entire spirit of that law concerned. Therefore, I would request that the office of the Speaker as the initiator or the person under whose name this Bill comes to the House and the Leader of Majority Party should consider this Bill before we go into it. Having said that let me highlight a few provisions. Of course, I oppose the entire Bill; it is not the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill, because it does propose minor amendments to law. I would like to urge the House that we should stamp our authority so that this practice of developing legislation through this Bill stops Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, look at the proposed amendments to the Interpretation and General Provisions Act, you remember the Leader of Majority Party merely indicated that we were changing the word “Minister” and replacing it with “Cabinet Secretary.” That is a very normal thing, but you know this provision is making the President of the country a Minister. In fact, the President is being brought to the level of the people he appoints. He is being made a Minister and the Deputy President is being made a Minister as well. Is it not necessary that when you are undertaking such amendment you expose the matter to the public so that we can have the views of our people? These are matters we are talking about. Look at the proposals in terms of proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, I want hon. Members and the country to be alert. I am one member who had been to court accused, even as a Member. 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.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, our Constitution anchors the right of every accused person and the right of every arrested person to bail. How then do we have a proposal saying a police officer or a court may decline bail? It is outright unconstitutional. The Constitution says it is a right to get; you must give bail, unless there are compelling reasons. Whether or not reasons are compelling, it is a determination left to the discretion of the judicial officer. If there have been lapses, it has something to do with the training of the judicial officers. It has something to do with how we make the judicial officers aware of the society we are operating in, in relation to particular offences. But when you tell police officers that on these situations, you can deny bail--- Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, look at the proposals being made, some suggest that where you will fail to surrender custody, a police officer may deny you bail. How do you fail to surrender custody against the security apparatus of this country? How do they determine it at the time you are arrested considering that at that time you are presumed innocent? How do they confirm that you committed an offence while on bail? How do they know that you will commit an offence while on bail, when the time you are charged, you are still innocent? These are presumptuous. Essentially, you are giving the police excuses to deny bail, which is really unconstitutional. We are taking the country mischievously to the dark days of detention without trial. I fear this is what will happen. You will be arrested because you will interfere with witnesses or obstruct the cause of justice. That is so vague. It is so nebulous. How do you determine I will do that? I am an innocent party brought to court to determine whether I am guilty or not. Essentially, we may take it for granted, but I wanted to remind the House that the laws on detention without trial in this country were brought by people who became the immediate victims of them. Let us not seek to attenuate fundamental rights and liberties already anchored in the Constitution. Let us be very cautious.

Let us not attempt at any given time to legislate discretion. That is for magistrates, that is why they are trained. Look at the proposed amendment to the Prisons Act; you know the Power of Mercy Committee deals with the prerogative of mercy. What is being removed is the power of a committee within prisons to grant remission on consideration of good behaviour. When you go there you behave and those people can gauge your conduct and reduce your term, like from ten to seven years. It is not equitable to determine whether or not you should go without even serving a day. Essentially, on correction and changes and assessment of that, we are taking away that power, pretending it is elsewhere. Look at the proposed amendments to the Kenya Ports Authority Act, we are bringing the inland waters under the remit of the Kenya Ports Authority. So, our ferry from Homa Bay to Kisumu, some managing director from wherever is going to deal with it. Is it not a matter for the Senate to say something? Is it not a matter for the counties in which these inland waters are to deal with? Is it a matter we can proceed with in the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill without public participation and really considering those important things? There is something I want to mention on Salaries and Remuneration Commission. It is important for me. We are not just seeking to make them full time commissions; we are also removing the requirement of parliamentary approval into the appointment. These are the things we are proposing here. It is terrible! 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.

Well, that is all the time we have for you. Just so that you can clarify something that is of interest to Members and the public, I do not know whether you have the Bill. If you have it, look with me pages 26 to 28. There is a question I asked the member for Endebess, but the Standing Orders will not allow him to speak. Look at Section 36(2), the deletion. Look at Page 2680, at the bottom, that is the principal Act that is proposed to be amended. Can you combine the two and just take one minute to explain what that is all about? It speaks to the National Intelligence Service Act, proposing to delete Section 36(2) of that Act. Section 36(2) of the principal Act has been reproduced for you on page 2680.

I notice it, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. Essentially, the Constitution anchors one among the fundamental rights and freedoms. It anchors the rights of the citizens of this country and any individual within the territory of this country to privacy and personal liberty. The provision says that prior to taking any action under this Act, one should obtain a warrant under Part V. It means the Director, NIS and his team will enter your house, your bedroom and meet you anywhere and you will be investigated. We are making very dangerous proposals. This is the kind of thing we should give more than ten minutes to debate. It is a very crucial thing but fundamentally; let us avoid a situation where we treat such issues without public participation and without involvement of people who know about these issues as Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill.

We still have time for some more hon. Members. Member for Laikipia, you are following Member for Luanda according to the request list. I see how you have requested here.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, although this Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) proposals provide some interesting and probably some necessary changes to some of the legislations, in my opinion, I think it seeks to alter very fundamental provisions of very fundamental Acts in this country. For that reason from the outset, I would like to say that I am totally opposed to this Bill. I am so opposed for the reasons that we are seeking to change the law as regards the Kenya Defence Forces, with regard to deployment of the forces within the territory of Kenya. We are seeking to change that within the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill. I want to agree with you in very strong terms that that requires a very robust debate in this House of the entire Kenya Defence Forces Act. So, that cannot be done through this Act. For that reason alone, I will be justified in opposing that proposed amendment.

I will go further: In these proposed amendments, we have proposed to amend the Criminal Procedure Code. We have proposed to amend it and my brothers have spoken about it in complete contradiction of our Constitution. And it is not only the Constitution. In the anchor rights that we have protected in our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, we are seeking to amend it. We are seeking to infringe on the express provisions of the Bill or Rights by purporting to delimit the scope under which our citizens are entitled to bail. The Constitution is very clear. That provision in the Constitution and the reason for protecting it from any interference was well founded because the history of this country speaks for itself. These provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code had been abused. The right to bail had been abused. So, Kenyans will suffer and there is history there. For that reason, the drafters and the Kenyans who went out to express themselves on the 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.

requirements they wanted to be provided in the Constitution, were very well advised in protecting that right. In the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill today, we are proposing to take it away. We are proposing to take that right away and hand it to a simple policeman; any policeman to determine who is entitled to bail. That policeman can deny you the right to bail for reasons that, if I may just refer to it---

Is that not a prescription for security? Would the proposal not enhance security, particularly terrorism?

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, yes it is true we have terrorism. We cannot move far away from the fact that we have terrorism in this country and it is a matter that is vexing all of us but I do not think that it is right for us to take away the right; the presumption of innocence of Kenyans who are arrested by policemen. This is because the right of innocence is very key and the innocence or otherwise of any person who is arrested by a policeman or any other authority can only be determined upon full trial; upon full evidence. We are proposing for the policeman to do this: To take away that right, if I may just refer to it.

You have prosecuted it very well.

Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker. So, we cannot deviate from the Constitution and hand over that right to a policeman. Because of the constitutional reason and taking away the right of this Parliament to determine whether the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) can be deployed within our territories, it will be prudent to do away with these proposed amendments. Although there are some good amendments, at the moment, I will not speak on them because I am opposed to this due to these very fundamental reasons. Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me a chance to contribute to this Bill.

Hon. Members, I have three requests. Can we agree that each Member contributes for five minutes? I will start with the Member for Laikipia East, the Member for Kitui Central and lastly the Member for OlJorok.

Thank you hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I was waiting to contribute to the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill that is supposed to tidy up statutes that may not be that tidy. If you look at the University Act which is what I will start with, you will find that the amendments in that Act are very simple. You have substitution of the words “core course and programmes”. Earlier on, universities would be given charters on the basis of offering core courses. Those who have been to university will agree with me that you cannot have a university whose sole responsibility is just to preside over core courses. Instead you should have programmes in law, engineering and other disciplines. However, you cannot have universities being given charters to provide core courses alone. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if you look at Section 35(1) of the University Act, you will realize that the amendment excludes the Vice-Chancellors from scrutiny. It leaves the appointment of Deputy Vice-Chancellors entirely to the Cabinet Secretary whereas Vice-Chancellors, Principals and Deputy Principals would be subjected to a 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.

competitive process. The Deputy Vice-Chancellors who play a very important role are excluded. Therefore, I propose to bring amendments to that particular section so that Deputy Vice-Chancellors are also included and subjected to a competitive process. Definitely, it will not be the right thing to exclude them. In so doing, we will move an amendment to delete Section 70(2) which also provides for the procedures of appointment of Deputy Vice-Chancellors. In the amendments to Section 38, it proposes that the functions of Vice- Chancellors shall be taken over by Chairmen of Councils where the Vice-Chancellor is not able to do his duties. We have had Vice-Chancellors who are never available. This affects graduation and the normal running of universities. We shall have continuity if we provide for those duties to be taken over by the Chairman. Business at the universities will also be carried out as they should. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, if I may touch briefly on the Criminal Procedure Act where it is proposed that policemen should be given the right to deny suspects bail, I think that is one part of the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill that should not be passed. I am not a lawyer but the intent of whoever proposes that is questionable. If it is provided for in the Constitution, how do you pretend to take it away using a less superior law? I do not think that it makes sense. Of course we have had instances in the past where people have been accused of even murder and then after ten years or so they are still found innocent. So, what is provided for in the Constitution was to avoid such grave injustices from being carried out and, therefore, I would oppose that particular section. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, in doing so, I would like to say that there are very many good things in this Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill that should be carried. Let us not throw the baby with the bath water. Let us throw away what is not good but what is good for this country let us make sure that it is amended. So, I would like to urge my fellow Members of Parliament that those bits that are not good let us do away with them but those that are good let us have them carried through.

Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker.

Member for Kitui Central, have five minutes if you do not mind.

Thank you, hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker for giving me the opportunity to also contribute to this Bill. When I look at this Bill my expectation was that after it was withdrawn, it would have taken care of things which Members were not happy with but I realise that it is exactly the same as the other Bill we were discussing. What I would say is that, looking at this Bill I would summarise it as poison coated with sweet nuts. There are some good things in this Bill but they are very few. For example, when you look at the proposed amendments to the National Youth Council, they are quite attractive.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, the other issue is that of the political parties. You know when you put the issues of political parties here with what is happening currently people might think that we have an opportunity to actually improve that law and make sure that we entrench democracy in this country, but when you look at the other amendments which are proposed in this Bill, some are really very bad. I am happy that the Leader of Majority Party has said that he is going to withdraw the proposed 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.

amendments to the Public Benefits Organisation Act and the Public Finance Management Act because to me I think these two require serious amendments and they cannot be captured under this kind of law; the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Act.

Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, at the same time let me combine the issue of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission and that of the Kenya Ports Authority. When you look at the amendment to the Kenya Ports Authority Act, it aims to increase the board members from two to five. When you look at the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, the proposal is to make the commissioners work full time. We have actually said, and I belong to the Budget and Appropriations Committee, that this country needs to think about moving from these many commissioners who do work which should be done by technical people. I like what the Member for Suna East was saying that we think of strengthening the secretariat in terms of technical capacities so that we have very few commissioners who actually do more of policy direction and strategic thinking. In that case, we will be helping this country. We will be talking about reducing expenses related to these commissioners and at the same time Kenyans are likely to get value for money. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, instead of talking about making commissioners full time, this country needs to think about making all commissions part time and do a proper job evaluation to see what work needs to be done by commissioners and what work needs to be done by the secretariat. This is because the secretariat is more permanent. It can remain there for long in terms of institutional memory and in doing the actual work. I think the secretariat is better placed to do that. So, in that case we have people doing work. Hon. Temporary Deputy Speaker, when you look at what is happening in this country, you realise these commissioners in terms of their allowances and entitlements have so much which they get from these institutions. My belief is that we need to move away from commissioners to strengthening the secretariats.

Is that the point at which you want to now share your minutes with your brother from Ol Jorok?

Actually, that is what I propose. Instead of talking about full time commissioners I think we need to move to that direction of part time commissioners and reduce the number and I have said that many times in this Chamber. If we go that way, we will get value for money and Kenyans will have much more money going to development as compared to money going to recurrent expenditure.

Hon. Kajwang’

With that let me also allow him to talk. It is a great honour.

Thank you, hon. Speaker. It is very unfortunate that we have limited time to debate this Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill.

Hon. Kajwang’

Sure, hon. Speaker. I was also going to say that I am very disappointed. I was very disappointed when I saw this item on the Order Paper. I am aware that in the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee we are deliberating some of the provisions in the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill. We did not, first of all, get time to do that. The Leader of Majority Party also said that there are other proposed 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.

legislations that were supposed to be taken to other departmental committees for deliberation. So, I do not know why we were rushing legislative proposals which should be in standalone Bills. Did we have to lump them, give them limited time and deny the Committee opportunity to sieve through them so that we get something proper before the House? As it were, this omnibus has passengers that are not supposed to be there. Most of them are supposed to travel alone. Members have talked about the Criminal Procedure Code. We do not need to revise the provision on bail. For me, what we need to do with the Criminal Procedure Code is much more. There is still a lot of dirt, so to speak for lack of a better word, in this legislation CAP.75. As you know, we have reviewed the laws on sedition, but the Criminal Procedure Code still provides on the process of handling such cases. We do not have corporal punishment; the Criminal Procedure Code still has provisions on that. Then it comes as a passenger in an omnibus, it cannot be. If you look at the NIS Act, this one is laughable and it must be debated properly. But before I even go there, in the interest of time, the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act which my friends have alluded to, I do not get the logic why we should give the secretariat all this powers. The Chief Executive Officer is also the advisor of the board, and this a single person. We will be removing powers from a commission and giving them to a single individual, and the appointment of this individual, if you look at the background of it, is likely to make the person grow horns so to speak. These are issues that cannot be debated in five minutes; these are issues that cannot be debated in an omnibus. But I like the Advocates Act, where the Director of Public Prosecutions is blocked from being a member of the disciplinary tribunal. Most of the advocates are today suffering. An advocate of the High Court of Kenya is first of all charged in a criminal court and secondly, he is taken before the disciplinary tribunal of the Law Society of Kenya. At the same time, he is fighting civil cases in court. Obviously, this is something that should be amended. What I am saying is that we have passengers here who can be handled in this piece of legislation. But obviously, others cannot be handled in this piece of legislation. I will be, with your permission, spending the other five minutes of time opposing this piece of legislation. Thank you very much.

Hon. Kajwang’