Letter to Attoney General by Kiambu MCAs

MEMBERS OF COUNTY ASSEMBLY
KIAMBU COUNTY ASSEMBLY,
P.O Box 2344-0900 Kiambu, Kenya
11^th May 2016

TO,

HON. GITHU MUIGAI,
ATTORNEY GENERAL,
OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
P.O. BOX 40112 - 00100
Nairobi, Kenya.

Dear Sir,

RE: SEEKING CLARIFICATION ON A CONSTITUTION PROVISION

We are members of Kiambu County Assembly who wish to engage your office in the clarification of a constitutional matter that threatens the proper implementation of our mandates.

Subject.

In regards to the procedure of passing bills, the Constitution allows the president to refer a bill back to parliament for reconsideration; Article 115 (2). For Parliament to pass the bill without the consideration of the President’s reservations, Parliament requires a threshold of 2/3. Constitution Article 115 (4) (a)

This is also captured by the County Government Act Section 24 (4) to ( 5) where it states that,

24. (5) If a county assembly passes the Bill a second time, without amendment, or with amendments which do not accommodate the governor’s concerns by a vote supported by two-thirds of members of the county assembly, the speaker shall within seven days re-submit the Bill to the governor and the governor shall within seven days assent to the Bill.

(6) If the governor does not assent to a Bill or refer it back within the period referred to under this section, the Bill shall be taken to have been assented to on the expiry of that period.

However the constitution or even the CGA is silent or not explicit on what would happen when Assembly fails to attain the 2/3 threshold.

Our own research have failed to get a precedent in the Kenya’s history books, though we have managed to get examples from countries like , Britain, Australia, United States of America, Nigeria and South Africa where a failure to override the Governors memorandum results in the bill dying.
We therefore wish to seek your advice on the way forward as our Assembly has reached a stalemate with the supplementary Budget where the Governor has sent back the bill accompanied by a memorandum and we want to be clear what would happen if the 2/3 threshold is not met.

Yours faithfully,

Members of Kiambu County Assembly,

Signed on Behalf:

 

Chairman: Hon. Martin Waiganjo Njoroge.
P.O Box 879 – 00219, Karuri
Email: mart_njoroge@yahoo.com