More Khama, no oversight on `intelligence` organs

27 February, 2009 in Botswana

source: Mmegi
Editorial

As the debate on the controversial Intelligence and Security Bill raged on a few years ago, members of Parliament on both sides of the aisle complained of a seeming lack of oversight mechanism in the draft.

Perhaps in the recent history of the House no other legislation inspired such heated debate. Most MPs argued that the law did not offer enough oversight on the performance of the intelligence community. An amendment to the draft proposed The Tribunal on Intelligence. MPs further demanded an oversight body; a full parliamentary committee in the fashion of the Public Accounts Committee. One can only surmise that MPs believed, quite rightly too, that only a full committee with full parliamentary committee powers would be adequate, given the powers that the law gives to the intelligence organ.

At the time, we expressed our own reservations about the Khama presidency’s ability to [continue reading]

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