A total of 63 devolved sector laws should be reviewed to align with the Constitution of Kenya 2010, a report of a Senate committee shows.
The Standing Committee on Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations said the laws, in their current forms, are contributing to the claw-back on the implementation of devolution.
The chair, Mohamed Abass, said his committee resolved to initiate an audit of all laws existing before the promulgation of the 2010 Constitution to identify those that needed to be amended to be in line with the current system of laws.
“As a result of the initial audit, 63 laws were found to still contain provisions that are facilitating a clawback on devolution and need to be amended, reviewed, or repealed,” he said.
Abass recommended that the laws be assigned to the different standing committees of the Senate, according to their mandates, for review.
“This exercise is urgent in the view of the committee, but it’s also a big exercise that requires the deployment of special resources to be accomplished promptly,” he said.
“The committee, therefore, proposes that the Senate consider providing additional research and expert services to enable the sector reviews and drafting of all the bills required to align all the laws with the Constitution.”
He said Agriculture, Livestock and fisheries committee needs to review 24 laws, Health Committee (15), Land, Environment and Natural Resources Committee (10), Roads, Transportation and Housing Committee (4) and National Security, Defence and Foreign Relations Committee and Trade, Industrialisation and Tourism Committee two each.
Labour and Social Welfare, Finance and Budget, Energy and Devolution and Intergovernmental Relations committees were asked to review one law each.
Abass said his committee will continue to conduct the audits to confirm the level of compliance with laws and periodically submit reports with the lists of those identified for action.
He urged colleagues in the House to fully support the effort and work towards clearing the backlog in the review of laws.
