NASA MPs after they walked out of parliament chambers September 28, 2017 protesting against the Bill on amendments to election laws. /HEZRON NJOROGENASA senators have said they will challenge the proposed amendments to the electoral laws in court once Parliament passes them.
Senators Moses Kajwang (Homa Bay), Mutula Kilonzo Jr (Makueni) and former Kakamega senator Boni Khalwale said the case will be hinged on the fact that the procedure is unconstitutional.
They said the process of both Houses forming two separate Select Committees to scrutinize the bills contradicting each other is unlawful.
This came amid Jubilee Party's concerted bid to amend election laws before the October 26 vote.
Senate and National Assembly members have clashed over the publication of two Jubilee sponsored Bills targeting to amend the existing electoral laws.
The proponents are citing the presence of gaps that saw President Uhuru Kenyatta's reelection nullified by the Supreme Court on September 1.
The National Super Alliance senators said the process is illegal, unprocedural and unparliamentary.
The Election Laws (Amendment) and the Election Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2017 are before both Houses.
They have warned that Jubilee is "shooting itself in the foot" because the court will dismiss the changes for violating the law. The opposition lawmakers in the two Houses have vowed not to participate in the process.
Baringo North MP William Cheptumo is the sponsor of proposed National Assembly bill which was tabled on Thursday.
Isiolo senator and deputy majority leader Fatuma Dullo is the originator of a similar bill tabled in Senate on the same day.
The notable contradiction is that Cheptumo's bill states that it does not concern the 47 counties while Dullo's provides that it concerns the counties.
A Bill that does not concern counties introduced in National Assembly is considered and passed without Senate's input, according to Article 109 (3) of the Constitution.
A bill concerning counties originating from either of the Houses has to be approved by Senators or National Assembly members before taken to President for assent.
"The memorandum to the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill states that the Bill does not affect counties and implies it is the sole jurisdiction of the National Assembly. This leads me to wonder. Dear Senators, let us not allow our political differences to desecrate the Senate," Kajwang said.
The senators questioned whether the two Speakers Justin Muturi (National Assembly) and Kenneth Lusaka (Senate) consulted as required by Article 110 of the Constitution before allowing the tabling of the bills.
NASA senators insist that any changes to electoral laws concern counties because it affects all six elective seats including governors and MCAs.
"Those bills should not proceed simultaneously in the two Houses. It should either originate from National Assembly and when they are done with it, the Speaker would refer to Senate as per the Constitution. Who is going to refer to another when they do concurrently?" Khalwale said.
National Assembly Clerk Michael Sialai, however, told Star on phone that Standing Orders do not bar publication of a bill of similar format and content in both Houses provided it undergoes all the stages.
"The Bill in question has been determined by the Speakers as a Bill concerning counties and will have to be passed by both Houses. The practice of publishing similar bills by both Houses at the same time is done in other bicameral jurisdiction including in the State Legislature of Maryland in USA," he said.
The Select Committees on Saturday held a joint sitting co-chaired by Cheptumo and Dullo.
They agreed on scrutinizing the bill together and have invited the electoral commission, Judiciary, Law Society of Kenya, civil society groups, business community, media, political parties, council of governors and information technology organizations to submit their views from today to Thursday this week.
Mutula, however, termed the joint committee as unconstitutional because it was not approved by both Houses as per parliament's rules.
"They have now come up with yet another unlawful way of handling the bill through a joint committee to correct the anomaly after we questioned the process. It is still wrong because there was no substantive motion for a joint committee to approve membership of both Houses," he said.
Mutula added that one House has to forfeit its bill to cure the problem of two bills moving consecutively although all the processes remain unconstitutional.
"A joint report that is going to come out is going to be illegal in terms of presentation. What Jubilee has done is attempting to kill a bicameral system of Parliament," he said.
The bills propose empowerment of IEBC vice chair to declare the presidential results in the absence of the chair, manually transmitted results to prevail over the electronically transmitted if the system fails and supreme court judges barred from nullifying a presidential election on procedural issues that don't affect final results numbers.
No comments:
Post a Comment