Justice House team may be dissolved - VP

Friday, 02 September 2011 08:45 BY FRANCIS MUREITHI

Justice and Legal affairs committee chairman Ababu Namwamba during the meeting with the TJRC Commissioners yest. Photo/ Jack Owuor

Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka yesterday said the House Business Committee will next week decide whether to finally disband the troubled Justice and Legal Affairs Committee.
 Kalonzo, who chairs the HBC, said chances of members of the justice committee solving internal wrangles which have paralysed its work for the last eight months are remote.
He said the justice committee should have been the one setting an example to other House committees and ensuring justice prevails but that has not been the case.
 Kalonzo said that HBC will meet and if it agrees that the committee be disbanded, a motion to that effect will be introduced in Parliament. “In the event they don’t agree, and we don’t see them agreeing between now and Tuesday, the House Business Committee is meeting to make a final decision,” said Kalonzo. “We want to deal with this matter decisively on Tuesday so that this committee can become functional again,” added the VP. He said several meetings convened to iron out the differences between the committee members had not yielded fruits.
 The row in the committee began in February pitting MPs allied to the PNU and backed by ODM rebel legislators verse ODM loyal to the Prime Minister.
 The row culminated to the ejection of ODM’s Ababu Namwamba (Budalangi) as the committee chair. The row saw Speaker Kenneth Marende direct that all matters on the implementation of the Constitution including scrutinizing key bill be handled by the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee which is chaired by Mandera Central MP Mohammed Abdikadir.
 Yesterday, some members of the committee maintained that the work of the committee had been frustrated by the office of the Deputy Speaker.
 They claimed that the office had frustrated holding of a meeting to give members a chance to elect a new chairperson to replace Namwamba. “This committee has been deliberately sabotaged by the office of the deputy speaker,” said Chepalungu MP Isaac Ruto. He claimed that on several occasions, the deputy speaker had attended the committee meetings and insisted on specific outcomes.
 Another Member of the Committee, Njoroge Baiya (Githunguri) said the members felt frustrated by the office of the deputy speaker. He said the members were willing to meet and elect a chair but certain forces within Parliament were bent to paralyze the committee.
 Nominated MP George Nyamweya, also a member, maintained that there had never been a dispute in the committee. He said passing a vote of confidence against Namwamba was not a dispute since it was a decision by majority members.
 The MP accused the chair of the Liaison committee, who is also the Deputy Speaker, of frustrating a meeting to elect a new chairman to replace Namwamba.
 ODM has since withdrawn its members- Namwamba Olago Aluoch (Kisumu Town West) and Millie Odhiambo (nominated)-from the committee.
 Other members of the committee include Abdikadir, Eugene Wamalwa (Saboti), Amina Abdalla (nominated and Mutava Musyimi (Gachoka).