Leaders act to end bad blood between Houses

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PHOTO | FILE Senate Majority Leader Kindiki Kithure, flanked by other senators, addresses the Press in Nairobi.  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By NJERI RUGENE nrugene@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Saturday, July 20  2013 at  18:29

The Jubilee administration has stepped in to resolve a standoff between the two Houses of Parliament.

A controversy over how the Senate and National Assembly should jointly deal with Bills has triggered tension and suspicion between the Houses, whose key leaders are all from the Jubilee Coalition.

Senators accuse National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi of breaking the rules of Parliament by not following procedure that calls for joint consultations between him and his Senate counterpart Ekwee Ethuro.

They said they fear the stalemate could derail operations of the Senate.

The latest complaints arose after two Bills were introduced in the National Assembly last week without consulting the Senate Speaker as provided for in the Constitution and Standing Orders.

The proposed laws that went through the formal first reading are the contentious Marriage Bill, which some senators say should also be debated in their House, and the Election Campaign Bill.

The two Bills join a list of eight others the senators say Mr Muturi allowed to be be debated in the National Assembly without consulting Mr Ethuro.

The provision senators accuse Mr Muturi of ignoring is in Article 110 (3) of the Constitution which states: “Before either House considers a Bill, the Speakers of the National Assembly and Senate shall jointly resolve any question related as to whether it is a Bill concerning counties and if it is, whether it is a special or ordinary Bill.”

On Friday, President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto held a three-hour meeting with Jubilee senators at State House to discuss ways of dealing with the bad blood between the two Houses.

Senators who spoke to Sunday Nation described it as an open meeting where all of them were allowed to speak their minds on what they thought was the problem, but they also had to propose ways out of the impasse.

“We agreed that it was crucial to start off on a new slate and things must not be allowed get out of hand and derail devolution,” said a senator who declined to be named.

Eventually, it was agreed that as a starting point, the President and his deputy would meet the leaders of both Houses to tackle the issues.

The meeting was slated to take place in a week’s time after Mr Muturi returns home from a Commonwealth Parliamentary meeting in Namibia on July 27.

The Sunday Nation learnt that President Kenyatta was categorical that it would not be business as usual and the legislators must ensure devolution works and county governments take root.

“The President was concerned that individualism and selfish interests appeared to be having the better of some of the leaders despite an agreement at the first meeting after we took over government that we would work as a team. He said we must re-focus on national interests,” another senator said.

Insiders say the senators also suggested that the President and his deputy hold constant meetings with the coalition’s leadership in the counties to ensure that the pledge on devolution is implemented.

“We agreed to do all we can to make sure government business is not frustrated right from the counties to Parliament. We were all agreed that the current stalemate in Parliament is doing more harm to government business than good,” said another senator.

The senators complained that Mr Muturi has not yet responded to a letter from Mr Ethuro asking that the two implement the clause that requires both speakers to jointly scrutinise new Bills.

The law requires that when a Bill concerning counties is passed by one House, the Speaker should refer it to his counterpart. And if such a Bill is passed by both the Senate and National Assembly in the same form, the Speaker of the House which originated the Bill is supposed to refer it to the President for assent within seven days.

But controversy has overshadowed the procedure, especially following a row over the Division of Revenue Bill in May which President Kenyatta assented to and disregarded input by the Senate to increase the budgets of county governments by Sh48 billion.

Mr Muturi made a ruling in the National Assembly stating that his House had the exclusive mandate to allocate funds to all levels of government.

Mr Ethuro responded by saying rules and procedures on how Bills should be dealt with in Parliament had to be followed.

When the National Assembly did not respond, the Senate moved to court to seek an advisory opinion on its role.