Revenue row: Senate team hits ground running

The 12-member Senate committee on shareable revenue will start its formal meetings this morning as it races against time to develop a formula agreeable to all the competing interests in the House.

The committee co-chaired by Bungoma Senator Moses Wetang’ula and Nairobi’s Johnson Sakaja met for the first time Tuesday, just hours after the House approved the motion establishing it.

The committee’s terms of reference are to develop consensus on the 11 formulae presented and recommend for adoption, one that is acceptable to the two opposing sides in the House that was, until Monday, deeply divided.

A member of the committee who spoke to the Nation Tuesday said they will review all the proposals on the floor, consider the views expressed by senators on the accumulated matter of the revenue and develop a mediated version that will satisfy both sides.

“Time is limited and we are racing against it,” the senator said, adding that the committee had during the first meeting ruled that no one will talk to the media.

Committee report

The committee must have a report by Tuesday when the House is expected to hold a special sitting to discuss the report. Some accounts suggest that the senators are pushing the idea of having a Speaker’s Kamukunji to agree on the contents of the report before the House is convened.

Minority Leader James Orengo had asked the committee to burn the midnight oil and have a report by Tuesday. But this was opposed by Majority Leader Samuel Poghisio, who argued that the House should only convene when there is a deal.

The committee was formed on a day of high drama after the State arrested three senators in what was a scheme to stop them from participating in the vote.

Tuesday, a section of senators vowed to move to court to compel the government to explain why the three were arrested.

Additional reporting by Bernadine Mutanu