Parties bill: MPs to use electronic system to vote
National Assembly clerk Michael Sialai.
Proponents of the contentious Political Parties (Amendment) Bill, 2021, are banking on electronic voting to speed up its passage.
The National Assembly will have sittings for three days from Wednesday to consider the bill. President Uhuru Kenyatta and ODM party leader Raila Odinga want to change the law to allow the registration of a coalition political party.
Minority Whip Junet Mohamed said manual voting slows down everything when the House goes for a division.
National Assembly Clerk, Michael Sialai, told the Daily Nation that the electronic voting system had not been reconfigured during the last sittings.
When members go on division, each side nominates two tellers to verify the votes.
“This will be addressed in the next sitting as the chamber has been reconfigured. There will be no crowding at the Speaker and Clerk’s tables,” Mr Sialai said.
“We received a letter from the Ministry of Health advising that the chamber be reconfigured to two-thirds of the members.”
Mr Mohamed also urged the Speaker to invoke Standing Order 108 and 109 “in order to bring sanity in the House when MPs meet”.
“The Speaker must stamp his authority because Parliament is a House of order,” he said.
Standing Order 108 provides that once the Speaker declares an MP disorderly, any member is at liberty to bring a motion to have the guilty party suspended from the sitting.
“If the breach has been committed by such member in the House, a motion shall be made by any other member present that such member be suspended,” reads Standing Order 109.
“Whenever a member has been named in accordance with Standing Order 108, the Speaker shall order the member to withdraw from the Chamber and the precincts of the Assembly.”
However, the allies of Deputy President William Ruto, said no matter what happens, the bill will not pass.
Kimilili MP Didmus Barasa said Parliament is democratic and has rules, adding that the rules cannot be bent to favour one side.
“We will set the rules before debate begins. Let them bring their numbers,” Mr Barasa said.
Keiyo South MP, Daniel Rono, said no new rules would make the bill sail through.
“We are ready. The bill will still fail. Watch us on Wednesday. It will be fireworks,” Mr Rono said.
Dr Ruto’s allies frustrated consideration of the bill by sponsoring numerous amendments and forcing the House to go to division several times.
Proponents of the bill could not make any significant move as only three amendments were considered by the time the sitting ended at 1.45am.
However, they lost in the end as they did not have the required numbers.
