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Christians attacked in Egypt in Palm Sunday bombings

Christians attacked in Egypt in Palm Sunday bombings

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has announced a three-month state of emergency in the...

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Terrorism, Religious Extremism and Persecution: A scourge that hurts the Church in Kenya.

Terrorism, Religious Extremism and Persecution: A scourge that hurts the Church in Kenya.

Following the deployment of the Kenya Defence Forces to Somali occasioned by incursions by...

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The EACLJ petitions against the introduction of Abortion Laws by the East African Legislative Assembly

The EACLJ petitions against the introduction of Abortion Laws by the East African Legislative Assembly

On Tuesday, the EACLJ submitted a Petition to the the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA)...

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  • Linda Uhai

    'Linda Uhai' is Swahili for 'Protect Life'. This is a pro-life campaign which was initiated by the EACLJ, involving other like-minded organizations, aimed at advocating for the preservation of life from conception to natural end, as an inherent right of every human being.

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  • Civic Education

    The EACLJ has over the years conducted Civil Education across the country, working with other like minded organisations. Civic Education is the sensitisation of the population on the theoretical and practical aspects of citizenship. The citizens get to know about their rights and duties; duties to each other, and duties to the country.

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  • Legislative Causes

    In its quest to promote and defend human rights across the length and breadth of Kenya, the EACLJ engages in Legal and Legislative matters through engaging in high impact cases, lobbying the government and being the legal representative of various evangelical churches.

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  • Social Campaigns and Events

    The EACLJ has over the years taken part in and directly organised various social campaigns that align with our objectives of human rights, religious freedom and general civic education.

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  • Samburu

    As part of our mandate to promote and defend human rights across the region, the EACLJ has been working with the Samburu Girls Foundation to help the cause of the girl child in the Samburu Community of Kenya.

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The implementation of the new constitution has so far not been as easy and immediate as many had anticipated it would be. Many Bills have come up with a good number having been made into law already. It is critical that the public takes a keen interest in these large numbers of bills as they pass through parliament's floor.

Currently there is a bill that is believed to have been drafted by the office of the president to restructure the administration in line with the provisions of article 17 of the sixth schedule in the constitution. The bill is not yet public but it has been noted that the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) and the Kenya Law Reform Commission (KLRC) were not consulted or involved in any way in the entire drafting process.

A quick read of article 17 of the sixth schedule, reveals that such restructuring is allowed only "...to accord with and respect the system of devolved government". The new bill is said to retain district commissioners and create the title of county commissioners who would chair the National Government Services Delivery Committee. These committees are to operate at the county level and district level and are to be answerable to the national government.

However there also exists a County Governments Bill. This one provides for a sub-county administrator and a county ward administrator who are appointed by the governor and the county public service commission. The main difference between the structures is that one is answerable to the national government and the other to the county government.

Now, before someone starts screaming "anti-reform!" it is important to take the whole issue into perspective. The matter of devolution tends to be quite tricky especially since Kenyans are about to get their first taste of it. Big question here is; where do national government responsibilities end and where do those of the county governments begin? In order for the national government to perform its task, it needs to have representatives on the ground. The national government is part and parcel, if not the most important part of the system of devolved government. It needs to have enough hold on the counties without interfering with the operations of their administration.

There is of course the issue of consultation among the concerned parties since this is what has been causing delay with several bills. They need to come up with a mechanism for correlation rather than having two laws that will ultimately contradict each other. This will eventually be for the good of Kenya as service delivery will be brought much closer to the citizens, which is basically what this whole devolution thing is about.

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