MPs reviewing proposed Privileges and Immunities orders for the Ford Foundation and the Africa Finance Corporation pressed for tighter safeguards when the National Assembly’s Committee on Delegated Legislation met on October 8. Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and officials from both organisations appeared before the committee.

The main concern raised by members was that the protections should not restrict how Kenyan authorities enforce the law. MPs took particular issue with the provisions sought for the Ford Foundation, arguing that any immunity granted must be bounded and should leave intact the country’s sovereignty, its accountability mechanisms and the ordinary application of statutes.

AFC’s application drew separate questions. Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkonga asked why the corporation warranted treatment that other foreign financial institutions, Nigerian banks among them, do not receive while operating in Kenya. Gichugu MP Robert Gichimu sought to establish whether the privileges contemplated for AFC matched those it enjoys in other jurisdictions. The report of the sitting does not record answers to either question.

Likuyani MP Innocent Mugabe sought clarification on whether the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission would keep its power to step into corruption cases involving the corporation. The report does not record a response to that request.

Officials told the committee that AFC would remain subject to Kenyan law, operating within a framework modelled on the arrangements that govern diplomatic missions. The specifics of that framework were not disclosed during the meeting.

AFC Director Fola Fagbule asked the committee to back the proposal, pointing to the economic openings the corporation’s Nairobi base could create, especially in infrastructure financing and investment.

The orders under review stem from two earlier decisions. Cabinet approved a plan in February for the Ford Foundation to open a Nairobi office. In April, Kenya and AFC signed a Host Country Agreement that clears the way for the corporation’s first regional office outside Lagos, to be located in Nairobi.

AFC says it has directed more than KSh168.92 billion ($1.3 billion) into Kenyan energy, transport and industrial projects since 2017. Over the next three to five years it aims to mobilise upwards of KSh259.68 billion ($2 billion) across the region, with about KSh260 billion of additional investment targeted through the Nairobi operation. Its existing Kenyan projects include the Dongo Kundu Integrated Industrial Park and the Naivasha Special Economic Zone II.

The committee has not concluded its review. The draft orders must still move through the remaining parliamentary stages before any privileges and immunities take effect, and the precise limits of those protections have not been made public.