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Debate on a Bill seeking to entrench the position of Chief Administrative Secretary (CAS) into the Constitution, will proceed after National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula ruled yesterday that it is properly before the House.

Wetangula said move by Minority Leader to describe the National Government Administrative Laws (Amendment Bill) 2023 unconstitutional was premature.

He directed that debate on the matter proceeds to the Third Reading and urged Members who had amendments to execute them as planned.

Wetangula said the courts had pronounced themselves in the question as to whether a position can be created through legislation.

Courts further stated that such appointment required approval by Parliament and therefore ruled that the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee was within the law in dispensing the Bill.

“Bill is therefore properly and legally before Parliament and can now proceed to its final stages,” the Speaker ruled.

Leader of Minority Opiyo Wandayi had protested that passing the Bill in its current form would be entertaining litigation similar to the earlier one that led to the High Court declaring the positions illegal.

Wandayi said CAS offices and Chief of Staff as contained in the Bill are outrightly unconstitutional and therefore, Parliament cannot proceed, and should not proceed to process it in its current form.

Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga, while defending the proposed legislation, said it was motivated by the need to anchor the positions of CAS and that of the Chief of Staff in law.

“I expected the Minority Leader to have quoted extensively from the case law,” Chepkonga explained.