MPs to receive proposals on coalitions Bill

ODM leader Raila Odinga with East Africa Legislative Assembly MP Oburu Oginga during Christmas church service at St Peters ACK church in Bondo Siaya County on December 25, 2020. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

A parliamentary team will tomorrow hear all the proposals to amend the Political Parties (Amendment) Bill 2021 ahead of the special siting on Wednesday.

The 15 MPs who notified the office of the Speaker of the National Assembly of their proposals, will be expected to appear before the Departmental Committee of Justice and Legal Affairs (JLAC) for harmonisation as directed by Deputy Speaker Moses Cheboi.

JLAC committee, chaired by Kangema MP Muturi Kigano, will thereafter table a report on the harmonisation of the amendments at a special sitting on Wednesday at 10am.

The House was expected to proceed to the third reading of the Bill last week (Wednesday), but Cheboi called off the afternoon sitting that could have seen the MPs vote on the Bill to allow inclusion of new amendments for debate.

He said that due to the nature of the amendments that sought to change almost all clauses of the Bill, he had to invoke Standing Order 131.

The order states: “Where after a Bill has been read a second time and before commence of committee of the whole House amendments have been proposed to it which in the opinion of the Speaker require harmonisation, the Speaker may direct that any member proposing an amendment to appear before the departmental committee dealing with the subject matter of the Bill to present his or her proposals.”

The new amendments were proposed by MPs Otiende Amollo (Rarieda), Ayub Savula (Lugari), Kimani Ichungwa (Kikuyu), Caleb Kositany (Soy), John Kiarie (Dagoretti South), Alice Wahome (Kandara), Aden Duale (Garissa Township), Geoffrey Osotsi (Nominated), Owen Baya (Kilifi North), Dismus Barasa (Kimilili) and Daniel Tuitoek of Mogotio.

Ichungwa, Kiarie and Baya are seeking the establishment of the political parties board to execute the functions of the office of Registrar of Political Parties so that it can register, evaluate, monitor, investigate and supervise political parties in ensuring that they comply with the law

Duale proposed the deletion of the new definition of political parties arguing that it will give room for NGOs to operate as political parties.

Clause 5 of the Bill seeks to amend Section 6 of the Political Parties Act to provide that an application for provisional registration shall be accompanied by a statement on the ideology of the proposed political party.

Article 260 the Constitution defines a political party as an association contemplated in Chapter Seven of the Constitution.

But the Amos Kimunya-sponsored Bill will define political parties as an association of citizens with an unidentifiable ideology or programme that is constituted for the purposes of influencing public policy or nominating candidates to conduct elections.

“An analysis of the Bill tells of a story of a strategy to hoodwink this House to pass a Bill that will negate democracy by weakening parties,” Duale claimed.

Clause 8(b) of the Bill provides that in the case of a coalition political party, the coalition political party shall submit the coalition agreement at least six months before a General Election. 

That particular clause of coalition formation has been interpreted as part of a scheme by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his handshake partner ODM leader Raila Odinga to allow the registration of Azimio La Umoja Movement as a coalition and clear the way for it to field candidates in 2022.