Senators back plans to empower Law Reform Commission

Senators on Monday voted in favour of the government’s plan to amend the law governing the Rwanda Law Reform Commission (RLRC) to allow the agency to be more focused on law-making. It is a year since RLRC officially started business after a law governing and defining its structure was enacted. But the lawmakers agreed to assess a Bill that seeks to revise the structure of the agency after Justice minister Johnston Busingye explained in a senatorial plenary session that government wants to amend the RLRC law for efficiency. “After two years in business, it’s clear that the Commission hasn’t been able to meet its mandate. It has to be improved to ensure that it fulfills its mandate for the country,” Busingye told senators. He said government, through a new Bill that will soon be tabled before Parliament, has proposed to make the Commission more involved in “law-making.” This means the agency would be doing more research about government Bills before they are written and tabled before Parliament. Such responsibilities encompass regulating and checking the language used in drafting laws, and making sure that concepts for new Bills are well researched and prepared before they reach Parliament. “Lawmakers are complaining day in and day out that Parliament has become a place to clear badly written laws, so we want to attempt an improvement,” Minister Busingye told The New Times shortly after tabling the new RLRC Bill before the Senate on Monday. Proposed changes As part of the proposed changes at the RLRC, government wants to introduce non-permanent commissioners at the agency so that they could be hired at times of need to work on specific law making projects in specialised areas. More staff would also be hired and more equipment and other resources deployed at the agency to ensure that comprehensive research is conducted when the government is drafting new Bills to avoid loopholes that legislators often spend time trying to fix when assessing the Bills. Although the senators criticised the fact that the law governing RLRC is being amended barely a year after it was enacted, they welcomed the move and agreed that they will assess the new draft. “It looks like RLRC will now be doing more routine works in the lawmaking process; we need to ensure that the system is not too heavy, we need to eliminate any duplication dangers,” said Senator Perrine Mukankusi. Senator Mike Rugema argued in favour of placing more experienced commissioners in different legal areas to work at the agency, describing it as a “technical and professional institution” in its nature. The RLRC has a mission to provide services to create a transparent and collaborative system of reforming and helping in formulating laws that respond to the needs and values of the current Rwandan society.

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Senators back plans to empower Law Reform Commission