President Kenyatta rejects controversial ICT Bill as he signs 10 others into law

President Uhuru Kenyatta has rejected a highly contentious Bill that sought to have all local ICT practitioners licensed and registered by a council.

The Head of State on Tuesday sent the Bill back to Parliament alongside the Insurance Professionals Registration Bill of 2020 and the Higher Education Loans Bill of 2020 with memoranda after they were presented to him for signing by State House Deputy Chief of Staff Njee Muturi.

The ICT Bill was introduced to Parliament in 2016 by Garissa Township MP Aden Duale and supported by his nominated counterpart Godfrey Osotsi.

It was passed by the House last week, sparking outrage within the ICT community which was unpleased by the law as they said it sought to prevent some professionals from practicing.

This prompted a petition to stop the signing of the Bill that has so far garnered over 12,000 signatures on the Change.org platform.

At the same time on Tuesday, President Kenyatta assented into law ten (10) Parliamentary Bills among them the 2022 Appropriation Bill, Supplementary Appropriation Bill and Finance Bill.

Other bills that were made into law include the 2021 Radiographers Bill; National Electronic Single Window Bill; Traffic (Amendment) Bill; National Government Development Fund (Amendment) Bill; Supreme Court (Amendment) Bill of 2022; County Allocation of Revenue Bill; and the Mental Health Bill.

“The second Supplementary Appropriation Bill of 2022 makes available a total of Ksh.88,822,649,842 for Government expenditure on public services among them the fuel stabilization fund which has been allocated Ksh.49,292,440,866,” PSCU said in a statement.

"Other uses of the funds include drought mitigation interventions such as provision of relief food; the national fertilizer subsidy programme; settlement of ongoing road construction bills which has been allocated Ksh.26.7 billion; and social protection and safety net measures assigned Ksh.1.5 billion."

As part of the supplementary budget, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has  been allotted Ksh.2.1 billion and Ksh.1.37 billion to cover pending salaries and the ongoing revamping of primary schools across the country respectively.