Showdown looms in Bunge as MPs recalled to debate Huduma Bill

A showdown is looming in Parliament as MPs take a break from their campaigns on Wednesday to debate among others the contentious Huduma Bill.

Deputy President William Ruto’s troops have opposed key sections of the proposed law that anchors President Uhuru Kenyatta’s National Integrated Identity Management System (NIIMS) flagship project.

The Bill is among the business scheduled for the special sitting called by Speaker Justin Muturi as well as consideration of the bill unlocking conditional grants to counties.

The House is also set to consider any urgent messages from the President, National Executive and the Senate and also receive statutory instruments such as the newly drafted boda boda laws.

Debate on the Huduma Bill was not concluded in the last sitting of the National Assembly after Kenya Kwanza, UN bodies and human rights lobbyists flagged grey areas.

Even as the House convenes to consider the Bill in committee and eventually the Third Reading, hurdles remain as Ruto's side has raising constitutionality issues.

Key in the opposition led by Garissa Township Aden Duale is the fear that the Bill could lead to the scrapping of the Immigration department.

In a petition to Speaker Muturi, the MP argues that the bill gives the Cabinet Secretary for Interior sweeping powers on issuance of the Huduma Card, passport and other legal identity documents.

The MP said that in its current form, persons without Huduma Namba cards could be locked out of government services that require official identification.

“It can be used to deny Kenyans access to public services. There are so many Kenyans who never registered for the Huduma Namba,” he argued

The lawmaker told the Star on Sunday that they would keep the debate alive during the Wednesday special sitting, setting the stage for a fight.

This is especially after the Limuru MP Peter Mwathi-led National Security committee rejected some of the amendments by the Ruto team and various stakeholders they sought to use in curing the Bill’s flaws.

Mwathi and team, in an addendum to the report on the Huduma Bill, have rejected proposed changes by Duale, the United Nations Children’s Education Fund, and UN High Commission for Refugees.

The committee has also rejected the amendments proposed by the Immigration department, which sought to remove the proposed creation of a NIIMS Service Agency.

The Bill proposes that Immigration be one of the departments in the agency alongside the national registration, civil registration and integrated population registration services.

“The committee has followed the integration of data between the offices. This will create efficiency within the NIIMS system. Further, the NIIMS Service Agency the committee has introduced is an independent service,” Mwathi team says in a report after the review of the proposed amendments.

“The service is composed of departments, one of them being the Immigration. Its function has been provided for. Also, the passport is a document that should be embedded within NIIMS as it is an essential identity document,” the committee said.

Speaker Muturi had directed the committee to take a further look into the bill after the amendments but the committee was yet to conclude the winnowing by the time the House was adjourned Sine Die.

National Assembly Majority leader Amos Kimunya said they are mobilising members to attend the sitting, especially coming at a time members are busy in the campaigns.

He said the leadership would strive to build consensus on the sticky issues. “We will try to build consensus, and amend the contentious clauses as necessary,” Kimunya said.

On the fears those without cards would be locked out, the Security committee says there are timelines provided in the bill – being two years for such persons to enrol into NIIMS when the law commences.

The committee, however, allowed a proposed change by Homa Bay MP Peter Kaluma providing that persons enrolled in NIIMS can know who accessed their information and for what purpose.