- Senators are rushing against time to conclude the processing of at least 31 bills with 42 days to the end of their term.
- Some 20 Bills are in the second reading stage while 11 are due for third reading or committee of the Whole House.
Image: EZEKIEL AMINGA
Senators are rushing against time to conclude the processing of at least 31 bills with 42 days to the end of their term.
Some 20 bills are in the Second Reading stage while 11 are due for Third Reading or committee of the whole House.
“However, seven bills at the Second Reading stage have been dropped from the programme of Senate Business due to unavailability of movers when the orders were called out,” Majority Leader Samuel Poghisio said.
Also in the packed calendar are 48 petitions from the public and statements from the members on various issues affecting their counties.
“Other business before the Senate include 48 petitions and statements pursuant to Standing Orders Nos.47 and 48. Petitions are important tools of oversight,” the Elgeyo Marakwet senator said.
He urged the House committees with pending petitions and statements to hasten consideration of the items and to table reports in time.
However, there are concerns on whether the lawmakers will complete the pieces of legislations in time in the wake of August 9 general election campaigns constantly denying the House the quorum.
The term of the current Senate ends with the general election with House scheduled to sine die (indefinite) recess on June 16.
Among the bills pending are the County Allocation of Revenue Bill, 2022 that split among the 47 county governments the Sh370 billion allocated to them in the next financial year.
The Employments (Amendment) Bill, 2021 that seeks to disconnect employees from their work and the Kenya Medical Supplies that attempts to scrap Kemsa’s monopoly in the supply of medicines and other medical essentials are also queued for processing.
Others are Persons With Disabilities (Amendment) Bill that seeks to reserve at least five per cent of appointive and elective positions in public places to people with disability and campaign financing bill that caps election campaign expenditures by political candidates.
Cotton Industry Development Bill, 2021, Sugar Bill, 2019, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal (Amendment) Bill, 2021 are also lined up for consideration.
Nominated senator Agnes Zani called for the fast tracking of the pending business.
“It is important for us to find a way to get together and expedite the processing of these bills. Quite a number of them are almost at the stage of finalisation,” she said.
“This House and session will be remembered as one of the Houses that came up with quite a number of bills touching on various facets like agriculture, community health services, and health issues and so on,” she said.
“The main thing remaining is the Division stage where we vote for them. We know that we vote according to our county delegations in the Senate.”
“Most of the issues that we resolve in this Senate are those that we agree across the board for all the counties,” she said.
-Edited by SKanyara