Questions are being raised as to whether the failure by the National Assembly to get competent MPs to chair its committees is the reason Senate committees are outshining rivals in major investigations.
National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetang’ula has already undertaken to give direction on the emerging sibling rivalry between the two Houses "this week or the week after” as he tries to nip in the bud the bad blood between the two Houses over the clash of mandates that had faded away.
While some MPs like Adan Keynan (Eldas) believe that the incompetence in the House committees’ leadership is to blame, others led by the Leader of Majority Kimani Ichung’wah (Kikuyu) are directing their swords at the Senate, accusing it of overreach.
In a heated debate in the National Assembly last week as accusations of overreach billowed, Mr Keynan did not mince his words, telling Mr Ichung’wah to save the House’s image by getting competent MPs to lead committees.
National Assembly Majority Leader Kimani Ichung’wah during the interview at his home in Kikuyu on January 3.
Photo credit: File| Nation Media Group
“I am not in any way demeaning anyone, but when you sit on your job because of the fear of the unknown, somebody outside there runs away with your mandate,” said Mr Keynan adding; “then you run around saying the Senate has run away with my mandate.”
By virtue of his leader of majority position, Mr Ichung’wah chairs the Committee on Selection, which is in charge of constituting House committees save for the House Business Committee (HBC) and Committee on Appointments (CoA), all chaired by the House Speaker.
The matter came up after Marakwet East Kangogo Bowen, the chair of Blue Economy, Water and Irrigation Committee, protested to the House over the Senate’s overreach in discharging its mandate through committees.
But in Mr Keynan’s words, the person who has the power of the purse, the power of hiring, “is the ultimate authority even in our homes.”
The Eldas MP noted that “the National Assembly has the power of the purse, the power to fire and hire, but the only thing that is missing is the flare” and that it’s the highest time “as Speaker, you guided this House.”
“Here we are! Even the issues that are within the confines of the National Assembly committees are being adjudicated in the Senate simply because our members have failed to discharge their mandate,” said Mr Keynan.
But even as some MPs exhibit incompetence in the committees’ leadership, they have never shied away from using the committees to propagate their own personal interests, including turning them into grounds to peddle influence as they solicit financial and material favours from whomever.
Some MPs have already raised issues with the leadership of the committees on Transport and Infrastructure, Administration and Internal Affairs, Environment, Health, Lands, Energy, and Agriculture, among others, but their attempts to cause change have been thwarted by House leadership.
For instance, the Transport Committee has not been sitting as its chair, George Kariuki (Ndia) and vice-chairperson, Didmus Barasa (Kimilili), are already busy campaigning for the 2027 governorship in their respective counties.
Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa briefs media at his office on August 27, 2022.
Photo credit: Francis Nderitu | Nation Media Group
The Senate Energy Committee also swung in to probe the controversial multi-billion shilling Adani takeover of the State-owned Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco), sidestepping the National Assembly Energy committee.
The Adani transport and energy-related deals would later be cancelled through an executive decree after public protestations following revelations by Senate probes.
Separately, the Administration and Internal Affairs Committee led by Narok West MP Gabriel Tongoyo was bypassed as an Ad Hoc committee was formed by the Senate to investigate the Shakahola mass killings .
Mr Bowen told the House last Tuesday that his committee held a meeting with the Ministry of Water to consider the Budget Policy Statement (BPS), and on the same day, the Senate wrote to the ministry “asking them to appear in its committee on the same issues of BPS.”
Seeking guidance from Speaker Wetang’ula, Mr Bowen continued: “We don’t see where the Senators come in in the budget-making process.”
Marakwet East MP Kangongo Bowen
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
“I don’t know when the Senate committees are done with the ministry, where do they take their report on the BPS? There is confusion,” the Marakwet East MP said while suggesting a joint-sitting of the committees of the two Houses “if possible to cut down on costs of duplication.”
Mr Ichung’wah, who all along was seated in his chair, sprung up and warned government officers whose agencies are overseen by the National Assembly committees against giving preferences to the Senate invitations.
The Leader of Majority went on to dismiss the Senate's involvement in the budget-making process, saying that it is only limited to the consideration of the Division of Revenue Bill (DoRB) and the Medium Term Debt Management Strategy (MTDMS).
“If you are a CS and you have two invitations, one by the departmental committee that oversights you and your ministry and one from another House that oversights governors and county governments, you have a choice; to decide where to appear and to know which side of your bread is buttered,” said Mr Ichung’wah.
“I want to advise this CS who has an invitation from the National Assembly and another from the Senate, just know which side of your bread is buttered and appear before the House that oversees you, give it priority over another House,” the Kikuyu MP said.
But Mr Keynan reminded Mr Ichung’wah that as the appointing authority to so many committee chairpersons and vice chairpersons, he has a responsibility to ensure the committees get leadership that is competent.
“The chairs of committees function in line with the mandate of your committees. Even when you want assistance, you can do it within the confines of the committee’s mandate.”
According to Rarieda MP Dr Otiende Amollo, “the issues raised by Mr Bowen go as far as the jurisdiction of the Houses of Parliament.”
“There are many committees in which we serve where a government department is supposed to attend and we are told there is a simultaneous invitation by another committee of the Senate,” said Dr Amollo adding, “what I have noticed is a situation of overreaching.”
“If you examine keenly, you cannot see the nexus between that committee and the work of the counties and the jurisdiction of the Senate,” he said and urged Speaker Wetang’ula to issue an authoritative communication founded on the mandates of the two Houses.
“When the constitution says that this House has no role in the impeachment of a County Governors, this House has never tried to play a role. We watch from afar like the rest of Kenyans,” said Dr Amollo.
