KDF to report cost of military operations after law is amended

A KDF soldier attached to Amisom guards the Kismayu International Airport control tower. PHOTO | FILE 

By EDWIN MUTAI, emutai@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Proposed changes to the law governing Kenya’s military will open the lid on the KDF’s spending while on local or foreign missions.

The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) will soon be compelled to disclose the total cost its troops have incurred in the five-year battle against Somalia-based Al-Shabaab terrorists if Parliament passes proposed changes to the law governing the country’s military.

The new law is expected to open the lid on the KDF’s spending while on local or foreign missions – a totally opaque public expenditure line under the current legal regime.

The National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations has proposed a further amendment to the Kenya Defence Forces (Amendment) Bill, 2015 to compel the Cabinet secretary in charge of Defence to disclose where the troops are deployed, and the expenditure incurred or is expected to be incurred.

“The proposed amendment seeks to include expenditure incurred or expected to be incurred during deployment of Defence Forces as one of items that the Cabinet secretary should disclose to the National Assembly,” the committee said in its report on the amendment Bill.

The Bill, which is sponsored by the government, was published on July 22, 2015. MPs commenced debate on the Bill last Thursday after Majority Leader Aden Duale moved it through the second reading.

Section 13 of the Bill seeks to amend clause 31 of the KDF Act, 2012 that allows the KDF to co-operate with other authorities like the Kenya Police.

The parent Act stipulates that the Defence Forces shall assist and co-operate with other authorities in situations of emergency or disaster, and report to the National Assembly whenever the military is deployed in such circumstances.

It says that the KDF personnel may be deployed to restore peace in any part of Kenya affected by unrest or instability but only with the approval of the National Assembly and shall, in the interest of national security, co-operate and work with other security organs in the discharge of its constitutional mandate.

Through the proposed amendment, the committee has expanded the scope of the KDF Act to require that where the Defence Forces are deployed for any purpose, the Cabinet Secretary shall inform the National Assembly promptly the reasons for such deployment, place where they are being deployed and the period for which they are expected to be deployed.

“If the National Assembly is not in session during the first seven days after the deployment of the Defence Forces, the Cabinet Secretary shall provide the information required to the Speaker of the National Assembly,” the Bill states.

Committee chairman Ndung’u Gethenji argues in the committee report that clause 13 of the amendment Bill, as originally drafted, had removed the need for the Cabinet Secretary to inform the National Assembly where the Defence Forces are deployed, and expenditure incurred or expected to be incurred.

“This is in violation of Article 201 of the Constitution, which outlines openness and accountability as one of the guiding principles in financial matters,” Mr Gethenji said in the report signed by 15 MPs who sit on the 28-member committee.

The KDF moved into the war-torn horn of African nation in 2011 in pursuit of the Islamist militants who had staged numerous terrorist attacks and kidnappings of Kenyan and foreign citizens.

READ: Kenya military ranked 11th most powerful in Africa as spending rises

Kenya suffered a spate of terrorist attacks to which western governments responded with travel advisories warning their citizens from visiting the East African nation.