Government Agencies at Loggerheads Over Amendment Bills

The Attorney General, the Ministry of Interior, the Presidency, and the Public Service are all giving different proposals, with other institutions even disowning the bills that are before Parliament.

Speaking while she appeared before the joint committee of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee and National Security and Administration, President William Ruto’s security advisor, Monica Juma, insisted that the Attorney General was involved in crafting the National Administration amendment bill.

The ministry of interior, the secretary to the cabinet, Mercy Wanjau, and the Attorney General have all denied knowledge of the controversial amendment that seeks to include the president’s security advisor in the National Security Council, a development that has intrigued the MPs.

Rarieda MP Otiende Amollo was the first to fire a salvo at security advisor Monica Juma, when he demanded to know her position on her utterances that the bill was sponsored by the Attorney General, yet the holder of the office had disowned it. 

“In your letter you say you submit the bill as submitted by the AG, the AG was here and he said he has never seen this bill, who is fooling who?” He posed.

The Justice and legal affairs committee chair George Murugara also demanded to know the origin of the bill after several government agencies disowned it.

“We have tried to interrogate the ministry of interior  but they claim they do not know the source of the bill. We interrogated the Attorney General, but he claims not to know the source of the bill, the secretary to the cabinet has no idea the source of the bill . Can you tell us who is the originator of the bill?” asked Murugara 

"Have you seen a policy paper on this bill, have you seen cabinet memo on this bill because that may be the source of the conflict in government, that one hand knows what is happening and the other doesn’t,” he added.

Dadaab MP Farah Maalim wondered why the officers were speaking at cross purposes.

“I would have thought that you should have ironed out your differences and brought us an agreed upon document. But here internal security has an idea, the AG thinks otherwise, the PSC is in opposition, you are all confusing us,” lamented the Daadab MP.

While defending the bill, Juma insisted that the bill had gone through the office of the AG and said the addition of the security advisor to the National Security Council would add value to the nation.

However, the Public Service Commission opposed the entrenchment of the Office of the Security Advisor to the National Security Council in the law, saying that would be unconstitutional as the membership of the council is explicit in the constitution.

Head of Legal at the Commission, Jackline Monami, told the committee that legislating the position of the advisor would open a Pandora’s box as other advisors might also demand the same treatment and insisted the President should have a free hand on the type of advisors he or she wants.