The Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which underwent public participation last week, will not be tabled today at the National Assembly and Senate for the Second Reading.
Chairs of the joint Senate and National Assembly legal committees? yesterday requested more time to consider views provided by the public, saying they would be ready with a solid report after they have considered all opinions.
A joint National Assembly and Senate Justice and Legal Affairs Committee co-chaired by Nyamira Senator Okong’o Omogeni and Kangema MP Muturi Kigano held public hearings on the amendment proposed through the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and lobby group Linda Katiba, who have expressed their reservations.
But the public participation exercise is coming under scrutiny amid questions of its importance since no changes can be made to the proposals made to Parliament.
Lawmakers such as Tongaren MP Eseli Simiyu have questioned the need to hold public participation, saying it will have no impact on the amendments.
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“It is a dogmatic following of the law because BBI was born from public participation. The team went across the country and collected views. Why are we subjecting it to public participation after that,” Eseli posed.
The MP added that even Parliament’s debate on the amendment was a waste of time because they could not amend it, and even opposing it has no impact.
“Parliament cannot amend the Bill because then it will stop being a popular initiative. Even if Parliament rejected it, it would still go for a referendum,” he said.
Last week, lawyer Donald Kipkorir questioned the need to call for public input when the constitutional Bill does not give room for amendments.
“Public participation envisages room for amendments. BBI Bill is a Constitutional Bill that doesn’t require amendments and hence no public participation except referendum campaigns,” Kipkorir noted.
Some of the contentious issues arising from the exercise were raised by IEBC, which questioned the legality of BBI proposing the allocation of extra constituencies.
“It is in order for Parliament or through a referendum to create additional constituencies, but the duty of allocating them sits with IEBC,” chairman Wafula Chebukati said.
IEBC has termed the proposal in the BBI to allocate 70 additional constituencies to some 29 counties as unconstitutional.
Similarly, the Judicial Service Commission wants Parliament to remove the provision in the BBI that gives the president powers to appoint the Judiciary Ombudsman.
JSC is wary that if the Bill is approved with that provision, the Judiciary will lose its independence.
