Nairobi, Kenya: Alterations to House rules which were hastily approved during a night sitting in January prior to dissolution of the Tenth parliament have come back to haunt Parliament.
Kenya State House
Although the Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) had not been formed then, members of ODM and Wiper parties were among those who approved the new Standing Orders during the January 9 session that lasted until midnight.
The two parties allied to Raila Odinga and Kalonzo Musyoka subsequently formed the CORD coalition to contest the March 4 presidential vote against Jubilee Coalition.
Had the relevant clauses in the House rules not been amended, the dispute between the ruling Jubilee Coalition and CORD over the membership of parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Public Investment Committee (PIC) would not have arisen.
This is because the repealed Standing Orders expressly provided that the opposition parties shall have a majority of one in the membership of both PAC and PIC. This was designed to prevent Government dominance of the powerful watchdog committees to allow the opposition to discharge its oversight role.
Repealed rules
In addition, the old rules stipulated the Leader of Official Opposition chairs PAC or in their absence, a member from a party not in Government, elected by the Committee.
Further, the repealed rules stipulated PIC shall consist of a chairperson who shall be a Member who does not belong to a party in Government. The new Standing Orders approve effectively repealed the previous rules alongside the provisions safeguarding the opposition’s dominance of the PAC and PIC.
The new rules provide that membership of committees is based on relative party strength in the House, which means Jubilee Coalition, which struck post-election deals with small parties to bolster its numbers in the House, effectively controls all committees.
This has occasioned the present situation where the opposition CORD has no legal backing to demand control over PAC and PIC- irrespective of their noble justification that the government can’t supervise itself.
Jubilee argues it has been accommodative by ceding leadership two committees to CORD, but it wants to remain in control of the teams.
By Vitalis Kimutai and Allan Kisia, The Standard
