Africa-Press – Kenya. Cabinet Secretaries face a Sh500,000 fine for delaying or failing to make regulations within the set time to allow for the implementation of the law.
The Statutory Instruments (Amendments) Bill, 2024 proposes the penalty to deter a CS who inordinately makes the regulations.
The development comes at the time the country faces a legal crisis after the Senate invalidated over 1,700 regulations that anchor various laws.
The lawmakers rejected a request by Attorney General Justin Muturi to extend by a year the validity of the regulations that were introduced 10 years ago.
The current law bestows the responsibility of making regulations on CSs.
“The Bill seeks to amend the Statutory Instruments Act, Cap. 2A to provide the timelines for the making of regulations to ensure implementation of laws passed by Parliament,” the Bill states.
However, the Senate Justice, Legal Affairs and Human Rights Committee that considered the Bill wants the fines enhanced to rein in rogue CSs who delay the regulations.
“The fine imposed on persons who fail to enact regulations is too low and should be enhanced so that it acts as a deterrent, and the lower limit should be set at not less than Sh500,000,” the committee said in a report.
The panel chaired by Bomet Senator Hillary Sigei, carried out public participation on the Bill.
Further, the committee said failure to enact regulations often renders a statute inoperable therefore making it not achieve its intended purpose.
The Bill provides that a person responsible for the making of should do so within 12 months, where the enabling statute has not set the timelines for the making of regulations.
“Where a person fails to make regulations within the required timelines, the person commits an offence punishable,” the Bill states.
The Bill also empowers any person to petition Parliament where regulations have not been made within the required timeline, and even submit a copy of the proposed regulations with their petition.
However, the committee stated that the Bill does not ‘clearly’ provide for how draft regulations submitted by a person who petitions Parliament will be dealt with.
“Once enacted, regulation-making authorities will have timelines within which to enact regulations, failure to which they may be prosecuted for an offence and fined if found liable,” the Bill states.
Last year, the Senate rejected Statutory Instruments (Exemption from Expiry) Regulations that sought the extension of validity of the regulations.
The regulations expired in January last year.
“After consideration of the Statutory Instruments (Exemption for Expiry) Regulations, 2022, the committee recommends that the Senate resolves that the Statutory Instrument be annulled,” Senate Delegated Legislation Committee recommended.
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