- The approval was met with stiff resistance from Azimio MPs led by Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi.
- Wandayi argued that Parliament is only required to approve the deployment of Kenya Defence Forces outside the country.
Image: FILE
Last week saw Parliament approve a controversial plan by the government to deploy about 1,000 police officers to Haiti to help stop gang violence.
Lawmakers gave the plan a nod despite a court order barring any deployment, pending the outcome of a legal challenge to the plan.
About 300 gangs are active across Haiti and 80 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, is under gang control.
In a morning vote on Thursday, the lawmakers adopted the joint committees’ report that had recommended that the House approve the deployment.
“The committees having reviewed Kenya’s obligations to the UN, its existing legal framework, submissions through public participation and submissions by stakeholders recommends that Parliament approves the proposed deployment of the National Police Service to the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission for Haiti under the provisions of the Constitution,” the joint team recommended.
The approval was stiffly resisted by Azimio MPs led by Minority Leader Opiyo Wandayi.
Wandayi argued that Parliament is only required to approve the deployment of Kenya Defence Forces outside the country.
“The law simply talks about the deployment of national forces outside Kenya. Article 241 of the Constitution talks of the Kenya Army, Kenya Airforce and Kenya Navy three arms of the KDF,” he stated, adding that the National Police Service is not included.
During the week, the Public Petitions Committee led by sessional chair Ernest Kagesi (Vihiga) heard submissions from the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) on a petition on the banning of TikTok in Kenya.
The petition states that the content being shared on the platform is inappropriate thus promoting violence, hate speech, vulgar language and is full of sexually explicit videos.
LSK President Eric Theuri told the Committee that TikTok has allowed content that is of an unconstitutional nature which is not covered by the Freedom of Speech Act.
He, however, recommended that instead of banning TikTok, it should be regulated.
“Banning Tiktok would mean banning all other social media platforms as the problem is not isolated to TikTok,” he said.
The Public Debt and Privatisation Committee Chaired by Abdi Shurie (Balambala), held a series of meetings to discuss the Consolidated Fund Services (CFS) Expenditures, under the Supplementary 1 Estimates for Financial Year 2023/24.
National Treasury PS Chris Kiptoo told the committee the Gross Public Debt increased by Sh310 billion to Sh10.58 trillion as of September 31, 2023, compared to Sh10.27 trillion, as of the end of June 2023.
“The Gross Public Debt comprises Sh5.66 trillion external debts and Sh4.92 trillion domestic debts. The depreciation of the Kenya Shilling has been the primary driver of nominal growth of external debt,” said Kiptoo.
Central Bank of Kenya Governor Kamau Thugge noted that from July to October 2023, the shilling depreciated by 7.2 per cent against the dollar, negatively impacting the stock of external debts and external debt service.
“In the last four months, the stock of external debts and debt service is estimated to have increased by Sh382.6 billion and Sh6.9 billion respectively, on account of the exchange rate depreciation,” said Thugge.
Members had questioned the cause of the depreciation of the shilling and the impact that has on debts.