KWALE, KENYA: Jubilee Coalition’s majority leader Adan Duale is proposing constitutional amendment to resolve the stalemate between The Senate and National Assembly.
Majority Leader Aden Duale
Speaking at a forum in Kwale County, MPs were unanimous that working with the Senate was next to impossible and that a solution was needed to help things move forward.
“We are continuously finding it difficult to work with the senate. Majority leader and I have tried but we have failed. It is high time we chart away forward as a house to either treat it casually or go it alone,” said leader of minority Francis Nyenze during the forum that was opened by the deputy speaker Dr. Joyce Laboso.
Describing the senate as “people who do not want to play ball,” Nyenze asked the National Assembly to look for an amicable way of finding a solution to unlock the impasse between the two houses.
Duale argued that the only way to address some of the confusion was to review the current constitution amicably.
He said both the ruling party and the opposition should find a way of reviewing the constitution soberly.
“We need to review the 2010 constitution soberly by bringing together the ruling party and the opposition even if it is at Bomas the way we did during the formation of that constitution,” said Duale.
Githunguri MP Njoroge Baiya was cautious arguing the Senate “is a constitutional institution that is there to stay” but lamented the lack of cooperation between the two houses and wondered how the two could not work together yet the Jubilee government holds the majority seats in both houses.
“You know we are wondering how we cannot get a solution yet Jubilee holds majority members in both houses. What if we had majority in only one house?” posed Baiya.
The deputy speaker disclosed that she with other leaders had met the President with his deputy recently to try and get an amicable solution on the relationship of the two.
“One time we had a session with the president and his deputy where we decided that if the two speakers cannot talk, the majority and minority leaders from the two houses can compel them to do so,” noted Laboso.
A mediation committee formed to solve impeding issues between the two houses has not also been well utilised according to the deputy speaker.
“We have not used the mechanism of mediation well as dictated by the standing orders,” she claimed.
By Tobias Chanji, The Standard
