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MEPs reject 25 legal instruments on public participation issues
Tuesday 02 August 2022
Legislators at the Parliament Buildings. PICTURES | JEFF ANGOTE | NMG
Lawmakers have struck down more than 25 legal instruments to give effect to various laws after they failed to meet the public participation requirement, delaying the full implementation of Acts of Parliament.
Subsidiary legislation struck down by the National Assembly includes rules calling for the automatic review of civil servants’ salaries and allowances every four years, the creation of a public lending agency for women, young people and small businesses, and a regulations to control scrap metal. metal trade.
The Salaries and Remuneration Commission (Remuneration and Benefits of State and Other Public Officials) Regulations 2022, the Public Financial Management (Biashara Kenya Fund) Regulations 2019 and the scrap metal were among the statutes MPs struck down for breaching various sections of the law.
Analysis by the Business Daily shows that the main reason for the invalidation of offending regulations and/or legal instruments was insufficient public participation by agencies when drafting subsidiary laws.
Output report
Article 118 of the Constitution requires Parliament, state agencies or any other regulatory authority to organize sufficient public participation and consultation with stakeholders and people who may be affected by the law. .
“A lack of adequate public participation has led to the regulations being overturned,” William Kamket, who chairs the Delegated Legislation Committee, said in an exit report.
The Delegated Legislation Committee rejected 25 proposals for legal instruments during the five-year term of the 12th Parliament whose curtains close on August 8.
The report says 269 published regulations were referred to the committee over a five-year period, eight of which were in draft form to be tabled in the House before publication.
The House team is mandated to review all statutory instruments submitted to Parliament by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Constitutional Committees and Independent Offices.
The 19-member committee determines whether legal instruments passed under an Act of Parliament comply with the provisions of Articles 10 and 118 of the Constitution, Sections 5 and 13 of the Statutory Instruments Act.
Public revenue
In particular, parliamentarians are required to check whether the legal instrument infringes the fundamental rights and freedoms of the public, contains the imposition of taxes or involves expenditure from the Consolidated Fund or other public revenue.
The 12th Parliament did not approve the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (Remuneration and Benefits of State and Other Public Officials) Regulations 2022 following protests from other constitutional commissions.
Relevant bodies have accused the CBC of overstepping its constitutional mandate and failing to carry out public consultations when drafting and tabling regulations before the Delegated Legislation Commission.
The House has asked the CBC to conduct further consultations with the Teachers Service Commission, the Judicial Service Commission and the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) before tabling new rules in the 13th Parliament.
MPs also struck down regulations to merge the multimillion-shilling Uwezo Fund, the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEF) and the Women’s Enterprise Fund (WEF).
Had MPs approved the subsidiary law, the three funds would have collapsed a giant loan agency dubbed the Biashara Kenya Fund to offer loans to youths, women and small businesses at an interest rate of 6%.
State enterprises
The legal instrument aimed to implement part of the recommendations of the presidential task force on parastatal reforms which called for the merger of some state-owned enterprises.
The Chamber rejected the merger of the three funds – Uwezo, YEF and WEF – arguing that the move will result in the loss of identity for women and young people and will likely marginalize people with disabilities.
The Delegated Legislation Committee also rejected the Scrap Metal Rules 2022, which seek to regulate scrap metal transactions.
The rules, which provide for the licensing of scrap dealers, were drawn up as a condition for the lifting of a moratorium on scrap metal transactions that President Uhuru Kenyatta issued on January 20, 2022, following a spike in vandalism of key national infrastructure.
The Senate (monitoring and evaluation), Energy (solar water heating), National Land Commission (investigating historical injustices), Crops (coffee) and Crops (sugar) are other key regulations that MPs rescinded before the House adjourned indefinitely (sine die) before the August 9 general election.
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