Diplomatic Passports for MPs and their Spouses According to New Proposed Bill

By Soko Directory Team / Published October 29, 2015 | 8:39 am

A new bill has been sponsored by Eldas MP Adan Keynan, proposing diplomatic passport for the MPs and their spouses.

The MPs want their spouses to get diplomatic passports to allow them free access to exclusive diplomatic lounges and privileged treatment at local and international airports.

If the bill is passed they will join the president and his family, the deputy president, and his family, the speakers and clerks of Houses, cabinet secretaries, diplomats, governors and principal secretaries in the class of State officers with diplomatic passports.

Currently, the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act excludes MPs and their spouses from the list of the 28 categories of the people that diplomatic passports.

MPs were previously entitled to a diplomatic passport but the immigration department removed them from the list when it was amended.

The bill, tabled in the National Assembly also sets up a new police unit to oversee security in the parliament as well as establish an academic institution.

The MPs have asked for a special unit of the police to be known as the Parliamentary Police Unit that would handle the security of lawmakers in the House. This would give MPs the freedom to choose who to handle their security.

The academic institution {Section 28 of the proposed law} proposes the setting up of a parliamentary academy for MPs with the powers to offer diplomas, certificates, and degrees.

Named the Centre for Parliamentary Studies and Training, the school would train MPs and parliamentary staff on a continuous basis, providing learning and development programs that will lead to the grant of certificates, diplomas and degrees that will build capacity for members and staff of Parliament and other stakeholders.

In the Public Finance Management Act, the MPs want to sneak in an amendment to shield the Money that is allocated to parliament from being returned to the national Treasury if the money is unspent at the end of the financial year.

“The Parliamentary Fund” as they have called it will be used for parliamentary work.

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