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MPs in fresh plot to clip President Uhuru Kenyatta's powers

 

The President will no longer have overriding powers to appoint state officers, as Parliament moves to amend the law to assert its authority.

The state officers include cabinet secretaries, principal secretaries, inspector-general of police, and chairpersons and members of constitutional commissions.

The proposed changes are contained in the Public Appointments (Parliamentary Amendment) Bill 2021, sponsored by Kisumu East MP Shakeel Shabbir.

The Bill seeks to clip the President’s almost unfettered powers under which he uses Parliament merely as a rubber stamp.

Mr Shabbir wants Section 9 of the Public Appointments (Parliamentary Approval) Act deleted to give MPs the right to appoint state officers.

“If, after expiry of the period for consideration, Parliament has neither approved nor rejected a nomination of a candidate, the clerk shall direct the appointing authority or the selection panel to issue a fresh notification or recall the notification as may be appropriate,” the proposed amendments say.

MPs also want the appointing authority to have the power to recall a nomination before parliamentary vetting. The appointing agency will reserve that right “any time before the holding of an approval hearing,” says the Bill, which also seeks to amend Section 5 of the Act. Section 9 of the Act provides that if, after the expiry of the period for considering a nominee, Parliament has neither approved nor rejected the candidate, the latter will be deemed to have been approved.

This is the section the President has exploited to have his way, with Parliament apprehensive that if it declined to consider a nominee on account of unsuitability, that will be akin to ceding its constitutional role.

If the Bill becomes law in the remaining eight months of President Kenyatta’s term, it may affect his appointments of cabinet and principal secretaries to replace those expected to resign and join the 2022 electoral contest.

Parliamentary legislations ordinarily take months before their debate and eventual passage, while the President, by his power of assent, has the final say on whether the Bill becomes law.

The Bill is set to undergo a first reading before it’s committed to the Administration and National Security Committee chaired by Limuru MP Peter Mwathi.

Lawmakers and civil society organisations have often accused President Kenyatta of using the back door to make laws through his memoranda to Parliament. He uses the notices to express his reservations on Bills the House has passed, but which he has declined to sign into law until lawmakers accede to his wishes.

If the President has any reservations on a Bill, he is only required to cite areas that he is uncomfortable with but not to reword them.

But President Kenyatta has often abused this provision, with his memoranda bearing the exact wording of how he wants the law to read. To overturn a presidential memorandum on a Bill, MPs must marshal at least two-thirds of members of the National Assembly and Senate.

With 349 members, the National Assembly is required to enlist at least 233 MPs, with the Senate requiring at least 44 of its 67 senators to block the President’s reservations. In the history of the 11th and 12th Parliaments, the National Assembly and Senate have always been handicapped in raising the required numbers to overturn President Kenyatta’s memoranda on Bills.

If the Bill becomes law, the next President will assume office with the powers to appoint state officers at the mercy of Parliament.

The frontrunners in the race to succeed President Kenyatta are Orange democratic Movement leader Raila Odinga and Deputy President William Ruto.

In vetting individuals nominated by the President and other appointing authorities, the law provides that a committee of Parliament should consider a nomination and table its report in the relevant House for debate and a decision made within 14 days of the nomination notice.   BY DAILY NATION   

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