MPs bar Uhuru from reading Budget

By David Ochami and Martin Mutua
Parliament's Budget Committee has ordered Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta to submit budgetary estimates for the 2011/2012 financial year before Tuesday.
The committee has also told Uhuru not to read the Budget on June 8, as he had scheduled because it would breach the Constitution.
The House team resolved yesterday the minister could only table the estimates but not read the Budget.
The committee also stopped Financial Secretary Mutua Kilaka from attending its meeting at Continental House without the budgetary estimates.
The committee said Uhuru should not attempt to present the Budget on June 8, without allowing Parliament and the public’s input in accordance with the Constitution.
Mischief allegedThe team accused the Treasury of mischief and impunity.
The committee also ordered the minister to address Parliament on his failure to submit the estimates by April as decreed by Article 221 of the new Constitution and added the new order has no provision for him to read what is ordinarily known as the Budget with the traditional pomp and colour.
"There is no express provision for the minister to come and read the estimates," said Budget Committee chairman Elias Mbau during a meeting yesterday.
He said Parliament couldn’t allow any institutions, groups or person to break the law.
Mbau said Uhuru has broken the Constitution and ignored the committee’s March 10 appeal to comply.
Garsen MP Danson Mungatana said: "There is absolutely no provision for the minister to present the Budget in the traditional manner."
Mungatana and Rangwe MP Martin Ogindo said the minister has refused to address Parliament on the delay as ordered by the committee on May 3 and should be forced to apologise for not submitting the estimates two months before the end of the 2011/2012 financial year.
"The minister will cause unnecessary drama if he tries to deliver the Budget on June 8 without regard for Article 221," said Mungatana.
Igembe South MP Mithika Linturi said: " Uhuru and the mandarins at Treasury should be brought to account for delaying the Budget process."
He accused the minister and Treasury of living in the "hangovers of the old constitution."
Committee member John Mbadi and deputy chairman Alfred Sambu said the minister was playing truant.
Sambu said Uhuru had disobeyed a February 24 order by the committee to comply in a concept paper prepared by Treasury on March 8.
Mbadi said the committee or Parliament has no power to "amend the Constitution through the backdoor" by allowing him to table the Budget.
Mbadi said Uhuru reneged on his undertaking made in an advertisement ordering his accounting officers to prepare the next Budget in accordance with article 221.
Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee chair Abdikadir Mohammed said there was "a mindset at Treasury" not to respect the new Charter.
"Obeying the new Constitution is a matter of obligation and not convenience," he said.
He was referring to the minister’s defence that he chose to read the Budget June 8 to coincide with the same process in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
In Parliament MPs led by Gichugu MP Martha Karua sought the Speaker’s direction on reports that Uhuru intends to read the Budget in the traditional fashion on June 8 notwithstanding the provisions of article 221 or opposition by MPs and the Commission on Implementation of the Constitution.
Article 221Nominated MP George Nyamweya argued Kenya was a signatory to the EAC treaty that binds the bloc to read national budgets at the same time.
Imenti Central MP Gitobu Imanyara said Uhuru was in breach of the Constitution as he had gone ahead to publish the estimates.
"Parliament will be under no obligations to act on the Budget," he said.
Justice Minister Mutula Kilonzo said there were no anomalies in the constitution adding that Treasury had forgotten that article 221 was already in force.
He said some people were in denial there was a new order but said there was need to find a middle ground in the matter.
Lands Minister James Orengo told the House to make references to the Constitution to avoid a torturous journey.
Turkana Central MP Ekwe Ethuro said the Uhuru has ‘a track record of disobeying the law including under-allocation of money to the Constituency Development Fund’.
House Speaker Kenneth Marende said he would rule on the matter on Tuesday.