- The bill that was introduced by MP Amos Kimunya aims at providing a law on civil registration and legal identification management and establish the NIIMS etc.
- Omari says the bill proposes to delete the word Director in the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act and replace it with permanent secretary.
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A lobby group has threatened to go to court if Parliament passes the impugned Huduma Bill 2021 that proposes to remove the office of Director General.
Sheria Mtaani has opposed the bill saying it will scrap of the office of the Director of Immigration among other offices in the Ministry of Interior.
The bill that was introduced by MP Amos Kimunya aims at providing a law on civil registration and legal identification management and establish the NIIMS etc.
In a memorandum to Parliament, Sheria Mtaani through lawyer Danstan Omari argues that the bill is unconstitutional for being intrusive and retrogressive to the extent that it purports to limit and remove the office of Director of immigration.
"The bill promotes impunity and is discriminative in public governance and therefore violates Article 10 of the constitution on good governance as a national value" the memorandum states.
Omari says the bill proposes to delete the word Director in the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act and replace it with permanent secretary.
The group further argues that the bill wants to remove that position even though the Director General position is an office created by PSC and approved by SRC without any public participation.
"The proposed changes will impact negatively on careers of immigration officers by taking away the gains made in professionalising immigration practice by making it a multi-agency system," they claim.
Omari further avers that Section 65 of the bill proposes to establish a NIIMS coordination Committee but the DG is not included despite the vital role he plays as the person in charge of citizenship and immigration matters.
The lobby group avers that the bill has the effects of repealing the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act without transferring and saving relevant offices and committees which has potential of causing deleterious and hazardous impact of issuance of permits, citizenship, national security including other operations of the directorate.
They have urged Parliament to retain the office of the Directorate of immigration and positions of immigration officers instead of replacing them with the NIIMS officers as their duties are different.
They only want the section on immigration deleted from the Huduma Bill 2021.
Sheria Mtaani chairperson Shadrack Wambui says they have written the memorandum because they want to centralise power into an individual being the PS.
"The proposal is to ensure that we have a super Principal Secretary the Ministry of Interior," Wambui said.
"We propose minimal and limited amendments to Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act to avoid extensive interferences with the Immigration Services in Kenya," they argued.
-Edited by SKanyara