National assembly members should go for induction and complete probation first
Members of the National Assembly
30th May 2013, Nairobi, Kenya: Members of the National Assembly are abusing their positions for personal gain at the expense of the public. The members have a duty to uphold their oath of office by protecting the Constitution of Kenya, 2010. Their actions are extremely disturbing and raise fundamental accountability and transparency concerns.
The Constitution of Kenya, 2010 did not require the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) to gazette their decisions. Indeed the gazettment was merely administrative and not a legal requirement.
Failure by National Assembly members to appreciate such obvious Constitutional positions shows that they need serious induction not only on Standing Orders but also on the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 which they have vowed to protect.
Furthermore, members of the National Assembly have not yet fulfilled the probationary service of three months as provided in the Employment Act. We have seen their shortcomings and incompetence and so we are collecting 1 million signatures to recall them.
The standing orders do not permit members of the National Assembly to make unconstitutional decisions. The members should by now have known that the Legislation on the SRC and the relevant Constitutional provisions on the SRC had the effect of overriding the Constitutional Officers Remuneration Act.
The National Assembly no longer has power to set salaries for State Officers as the President has rightly said. That power has since moved to the SRC.
We no longer have Constitutional Office holders and that old law has no relevance because some State Officers such as Governors, Senators, Members of County Assemblies, Magistrates and all new Commissions are not covered by that law.
Members of the National Assembly must stop this selfishness and greed and allow the Salaries and Remuneration Commission to provide for all State Officers.
Those of us in the civil society know that the biggest challenge now is to bury the former constitution and the National Assembly should now be exorcised from the demon or ghost of that former constitution.
Finally, Constitutional Commissions are meant to provide checks and balances over the excesses of the Legislature and the Executive. Members of the National Assembly should not use parliamentary privilege to escape liability.
Civil societies remind all Kenyans to protect the commissions from the Legislature and the Executive whose devious intentions will be to frown at the Commissions and Independent Offices to defeat the intended checks and balances.