New digital system has brought order in debating chambers

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By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Sunday, December 30  2012 at  22:00

IN SUMMARY

• Integrated public address and electronic voting console installed this year have revolutionised parliamentary proceedings

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When historians sit down to write about the Tenth Parliament and the things that helped bring discipline in the debating chambers, the digital system will be top of the list.

It is an integrated system with the public address and the electronic voting systems in one console. It was installed on August 7 this year, and after that day, Parliament became so orderly, though some hawkish and noisy backbenchers said the House had become “boring”.

The installation put an end to the “survival for the fittest” type of participation, where the loudest to shout ‘Point of Order’ and the quickest to rise, to catch the Speaker’s eye, would be the one to contribute to debate or even interrupt it.

Each of the MPs now have to log in on their console, right in front of their seats, and press a button to notify the Speaker that they are itching to contribute. The system will queue all the requests to speak, and the Speaker will use his discretion to pick the person to speak.

If there’s a ‘point of order’, say a breach in procedure or tradition, there’s an “interjection” button that the MP can press, and it will alert the Speaker.

The beauty of the system is that without an okay from the Speaker, the microphone will remain off, and whatever is said, is not captured.

Then, when it comes to voting, the verbal shouts of ‘aye’ and ‘no’ still persist. But if there’s a call for division, parliamentary parlance for individual recorded voting, MPs will just do it from their seats. They won’t need to go to the voting booths.

The first time this mode of voting was employed was in August, just a fortnight after installation. It cut the voting time from an hour or so, to just three minutes. MPs and parliamentary staff had never seen or known anything like that.

The console has three buttons for e-voting: YES, NO, ABSTAIN. All an MP needs to do is to push a button, and the vote will be recorded.

“The system is made in such a way that one will only be able to vote if they have logged into the system and the voting will be controlled within finite time,” notes Mr Clement Nyandiere, the director-general of Joint Services in Parliament.

Mr Nyandiere, who was the Director of Research, Information and Technology, when the system was implemented added that the system displays results once the voting is done.

“Adequate security controls are in place to ensure no one interferes with the voting process and results,” he added, in his audit of the changes in Parliament, as published in the latest issue of Parliament’s official magazine, seen by the Nation.

But the transition to the digital world has been a problem for the MPs. Many of them have bought iPads and other tablets to use in the House, yet, you’d see them carrying a hard copy of the Order Paper yet a digital equivalent is available.

So far, Ms Millie Odhiambo (Nominated) is the only one who has actively used her tablet to enrich the debates in the House.

There’s a day Medical Services minister Anyang’ Nyong’o called all the nurses on strike “zombies”. Ms Odhiambo fished out her iPad and read the definition of the word zombie from Wikipedia.

Other lawmakers use their tablets to trawl the web, catch up with their friends on Facebook, and to update their followers on Twitter. But for other MPs, going digital and quiet is alien.

They keep shouting to the Speaker to alert the person on the chair that they have a pending contribution and sometimes, such shouts irk Speaker Kenneth Marende.

At times, he ignores the shouts, on other days, he just fixes a mean stare on the person doing the shouting, but at other times, he puts them down in a nasty way.

“I could rule you out of order and apply sanctions and you will go nowhere,” Mr Marende once told Mr Yusuf Chanzu (Vihiga), when he shouted ‘point of order’ instead of pressing the ‘interjection’ button on the console.

MPs have also had a hard time keeping time when making their contributions. The system is such that, if the contributions are to be made within, say, two minutes, the microphone goes off after the end of two minutes.

Sometimes the politicians, used to being verbose, because some boast in the House that they’re paid “to go to Parliament and talk”, have to plead with the Speaker to give them more time to conclude their remarks.

As the Eleventh Parliament gets ready to take over the mantle, the new MPs will have to be IT-savvy, to benefit from the facilities in the House.

Parliamentary staff who are not IT savvy will also be required to upgrade their skills.