Senate to hold meetings in KICC

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Members of public follow proceedings during the proposed remuneration structure for state officers at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) on February 7, 2013. Photo/FILE   NATION MEDIA GROUP

By ALPHONCE SHIUNDU ashiundu@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Sunday, March 17  2013 at  16:31

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Kenya’s Senate will hold its meetings at Nairobi’s Kenyatta International Conference Centre as they wait for the construction works at the main Parliament buildings, also in the city centre, to be completed.

The Clerk of the Senate, Mr Jeremiah Nyegenye on Sunday told the Nation that the Senate had leased two floors at the KICC for offices of the staff, the Speaker and the political offices of the Senate such as the Leader of Majority, Leader of Minority and the Chief Whip.

There are also committee rooms which will be shared by the 14 committees of the Senate.

The senators, being representatives of counties, will have their offices at Harambee Sacco Plaza and Ukulima House, just next to Continental House where the constituency offices of Members of the National Assembly are located.

“The Senate and the National Assembly will be sharing the space in proportion to our respective numbers,” said Mr Nyegenye.

There will be 349 members of the National Assembly (including nominated ones) and 67 senators.

When the Nation visited the KICC, it identified clearly labelled offices of the Clerk of the Senate, the legislative clerks, the Sergeant–at-arms, that of the Hansard editors and reporters and those earmarked for the various directors.

The Shimba Hills Hall has been designated as the official debating chamber, while the VIP lounge at KICC is designated as the Members’ Lounge --for senators to meet and discuss their business ahead or in-between House sittings.

Mr Nyegenye said the Senate’s debating chamber will move from Shimba Hills Hall at the KICC to Parliament’s County Hall which is also having a facelift to accommodate the senators, their Speaker and the staff.

But the Senate staff will have to wait for the completion of the on-going refurbishment of Parliament’s Old Chamber, where new offices are being built to accommodate them. The first sitting will be held at the Amphitheatre.

“The nature of the first sitting of the Senate is that it is a public event. We will have it at the Amphitheatre, because it is spacious, and we will have very many visitors who will be attending the historic event,” said Mr Nyegenye.

The remodelling of the Shimba Hills Hall has been put on ice for now to allow President-elect Uhuru Kenyatta to have his meetings with public officials as prescribed in the Assumption of Office of the President Act.

Mr Kenyatta has been using the hall and the VIP lounge for his meetings, because, the government does not have offices for the President-elect.

But Mr Nyegenye said “there’s no crisis” in having the works frozen because in any case, there will be a window between the date of gazette notice calling the senators to duty and the date on which the first sitting of the Senate will be held.

“We will be very creative about the works. We will put rostrums at various points so that the Senator who has the floor, just walks to the rostrum to make a speech. We will not have overhanging microphones or those attached to the seats. We are operating in a make-do situation because we are just tenants at the KICC,” said Mr Nyegenye.

Once complete, the Senate building at the main Parliament buildings will have similar facilities such as the public address system, the broadcast system, and the electronic voting console attached to the seats of each of the senators.

The works at the main Parliament buildings are scheduled to be done within four months, but given the experience of shifting deadlines witnessed in the remodelling of the debating chamber of the National Assembly, the completion date can be safely said to be at the end of this year.

The first sitting of the Senate should be held before April 4 this year, and the date will be known once the President, either President Kibaki or Mr Uhuru Kenyatta (after he’s sworn in), will be the one to call that first meeting, where the business will just be the swearing-in, and the election of the Speaker and the deputy.