The electoral agency and the auditor general are among the 24 entities set to appear before joint parliamentary committees on BBI as MPs rush against time to dispense with the Constitution of Kenya Amendment Bill, 2020.
The joint Justice and Legal Affairs committees of the Senate and the National Assembly are rushing to conclude the hearings in marathon sessions scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday before they retreat to file a report.
The team seeks to beat the Tuesday, March 23, deadline to table their report in the two houses to pave the way for debating and voting on the Bill.
“We are targeting to table the report on Tuesday, if not Tuesday, we will ask for extension but we hope by Tuesday,” National Assembly’s JLAC chair Kigano Muturi, who co-chairs the joint committee, said.
Senate Minority Chief Whip Mutula Kilonzo Jr, a member of Senate Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, said they would work round the clock to ensure the report is tabled in the two houses next week.
“Our initial intention was to table the report when the houses resume from recess. But now we have many groups pending and that [tabling] will depend on how fast we shall conclude the hearings,” Mutula said.
The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission led by its chairman Wafula Chebukati and Auditor General Nancy Gathungu are scheduled to appear before the panel on Wednesday.
According to Mutula, the committee invited the IEBC and the Auditor to get their views on some of the controversial clauses in the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
For IEBC, the MPs seek to get their opinion on the delimitation of constituency boundaries, proposed increase of the constituencies and whether the proposal infringes on its jurisdiction.
“We want to get their views on the fact that there is a proposal to do a way provision that says you can’t form new constituencies 12 months to an election,” he said.
The joint committees is interested in knowing the Gathungu’s opinion on where the allocation of funds of counties bases on latest audited accounts is fair for the devolved units.
Other groups lined-up to appear before the committee on Wednesday are Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and Kenya Law Reform Commission.
On Tuesday, 21 groups are scheduled to make their submissions.
They include Linda Katiba which has been critical of the bill, Mau Mau War Veterans Association, Pan African Leadership Forum, Ufungamano Forum, Young Women of Kenya and the Kenyan section of international commission of jurist.
Others are GEMA cultural association, Kalonzo Musyoka’s Wiper Party, Kenya University Students Association, Kenya Voters alliance, Youth for BBI and African Women Studies Centre – UoN.
Kigano said they are intending to fast-track the hearing before retreating soon after the submissions.
“These are competing groups but they are all saying the same thing. So we will summarize their submission by receiving their memoranda,” he said.
Last Thursday, the committee received submissions from 14 entities among them the BBI secretariat, Jubilee party, ODM, Law Society of Kenya and Ford Kenya among others.
Besides LSK that opposed the bill, terming an attempt to overhaul the 2010 constitution through unconstitutional means, all the other groups backed the proposed changes and implored parliament to approve it to pave the way for a referendum.