Home » Media Centre » Blogs » Constitutional Deadlines & Fast Tracking Bills Again
Earlier in the month Transport Minister, Amos Kimunya, moved a motion for the reduction of the publication period of four bills constitutional bills from 14 to 3 days. These bills are the National Intelligence Service Bill, the National Security Council Bill, the Leadership and Integrity Bill, and the Petitions to Parliament (Procedure) Bill.
The rationale behind the fast tracking of the bills: The constitutional deadline for the passage of the bills is 27th August 2012. If normal time is given for publication of the bills i.e. 14 days, there is no way that that the bill will pass through the committee stage and go through all the required readings in time to be passed by the deadline of 27th August 2012. In fact at this stage in order to meet the August 27th deadline the bills will have to be rushed through all the legislative stages i.e. publication, committee and all the requisite readings.
At this point parliament’s reputation for meeting constitutional deadlines for enactment of bills mandated by the constitution is dismal, read here and here and here. Since the promulgation of the Constitution in August 2010, the Government has had two years to prepare the above Bills. After all the constitution is sets clear guidelines on what bills should be enacted and the timeline in which the enactment should take place. Having known these times lines what has the government been doing for the past two years?
So we are once again in situation where crucial constitutional bills have to be rushed through parliament to meet deadlines that were set two years ago. I am sure at this point most Kenyans are asking if the government has learned anything from its past mistakes with regard to deadlines and rushed legislation?
The implication of fast tracking the bills is that the end product will likely lack proper scrutiny and debate, as all the convention/timelines put in place by parliamentary protocol to ensure that bills receive the proper scrutiny are effectively thrown out the window. Furthermore by fast tracking the bills through parliament means there’s little likelihood of proper public participation.
Given that the four Bills (National Intelligence Service Bill, the National Security Council Bill, the Leadership and Integrity Bill, and the Petitions to Parliament (Procedure) Bill) have major implications for all Kenyans and have the potential to make fundamental changes to the country’s security sector, its leadership as well as have constitutional implications, rushing them through parliament is less than ideal. While it is crucial that the constitutional deadline for passage of the must be meet, there is also a need to ensure that in the future that parliamentary procedure with regards to the passage of legislation is followed.
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