• Long-standing MPs' private legislations also queued for Wednesday.
• House leadership says no member or committee is discriminated against in order of business.
Laws that could affect the 2022 general election are among top National Assembly businesses when MPs resume sittings Tuesday after a short recess.
MPs are set to conduct the first reading of a law seeking to eliminate IEBC scrutiny of cash spent by candidates and political parties in campaigns.
The Election Campaign Financing (amendment) Bill, 2021, provides no obligation for candidates and political parties to tell the public how they have spent their campaign cash.
The bill, sponsored by Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee chairman Jeremiah Kioni (Ndaragwa MP), also removes scrutiny by the Auditor General.
It provides that the IEBC would draw regulations on how accounts of candidates and political parties would be reviewed for compliance.
It also provides that disclosures may only be made to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, and the same would not be made public.
Kioni earlier said the bill intends to “tidy up the existing law to align it to the various court pronouncements on the regulation of campaign finances.”
Also queued for first reading is a bill by the CIOC seeking to bar political parties from nominating non-county residents to the respective county assemblies.
The proposed law makes it mandatory that political parties can only nominate persons who are registered as voters in the county where they are to be nominated.
MPs have also prioritised giving Kenyans a break from high fuel prices, with the first reading of a bill seeking to reduce taxes and levies that make fuel expensive.
The Petroleum Products (Taxes and Levies) (Amendment) Bill, 2021, is sponsored by the Finance committee chaired by Homa Bay Woman Representative Gladys Wanga.
The bill seeks to reduce the fuel levies – by about half the prevailing rates, as well as reduce VAT on petroleum from the current eight per cent to four.
Should MPs approve the legislation, the price of cooking gas is expected to come down with the proposed VAT cuts from eight per cent to four per cent.
The leadership of the House, in issuing the schedule, dismissed allegations of discrimination in the handling of members’ legislative proposals.
Clerk of the National Assembly Michael Sialai told the Star on Sunday that there is no discrimination in treatment of business of any committees of the House.
“The business of the committee is not being discriminated,” he said.
He was responding to claims by Kioni that staff vetoed proposals.
“The leadership has inadvertently stagnated legislation, especially those that would have improved the implementation of the Constitution, without knowing they are being controlled by the staff,” Kioni said.
But Sialai dismissed the assertions, saying the bills in question were queued by last Thursday, when the Order Paper for Tuesday’s sitting was drafted.
The order paper, however, has no mention of the removal of Speaker Justin Muturi, which some members of the leadership caucus said could be in the works.
Instead, MPs have also queued a bill that seeks to amend the Advocates Act to allow Burundi and Rwanda citizens to be eligible for admission as advocates in Kenya.
The proposal suggests that this would be subject to them having the relevant professional academic qualifications.
“This is in light of the fact that these countries are members of the East African Community and should be accorded equal treatment as Uganda and Tanzania,” Kangema MP Muturi Kigano, chairman Justice and Legal Affairs Committee – which is sponsoring the bill, said.
A bill seeking the merger of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights and the National Gender and Equality Commission is queued for a second reading.
If approved, a new commission to be known as Kenya Human Rights and Equality Commission would be established.
Grounded on Article 59 of the Constitution, the bill seeks to repeal the Act that established the National Gender and Equality Commission (NGEC).
In the proposed changes, the KNCHR chairperson will retain the seat, deputised by the current chairperson of the NGEC.
Other bills lined up are the National Electronic Single Window System Bill, 2021; County Governments Grants Bill (Senate Bill) 2021; Asian Widows and Orphans Pensions (Repeal) Bill, 2021; Provident Fund (Repeal) Bill, 2021, the Coffee Bill, 2020, and Community Groups Registration Bill, 2020 and the Mediation Bill, 2020.
Edited by A.N