After a messy purge in the National Assembly committees, camps allied to Deputy President William Ruto and Orange Democratic Movement (DOM) leader Raila Odinga have opened a new front in their ongoing political war, and are now fighting over who should keep the government in check.
Dr Ruto’s allies, who were edged out of influential House committees, want to officially assume the role of the opposition, pointing out that ODM is now formally working with the government and cannot effectively play the oversight role.
Jubilee Party Deputy Secretary-General Caleb Kositany, who has become the de facto spokesman in the DP’s camp, Wednesday said they want to be allowed to check the excesses of the executive.
“Now that they (ODM) have been given committee positions, which should be filled by the majority side, what we are going to request is that we be allowed to play the opposition role in Parliament so that we keep the government in check,” he said.
The outspoken first-term lawmaker termed unfortunate the committee changes, saying those who questioned the government on various issues were de-whipped from key committees.
“We were elected to serve our people and that is what we will continue to do despite ODM lawmakers being given our positions in a government that we campaigned for vigorously,” Mr Kositany said.
In a rejoinder, ODM chairman John Mbadi told off the DP’s allies, saying oversighting the government does not mean one has to fight it.
“There is this notion that the role of the opposition is to fight the government. The government is not our enemy. We want President Kenyatta to succeed but that doesn’t mean we don’t play our role,” Mr Mbadi said.
“The role of the opposition is not to abuse the government but to point out where they are not doing things right and correct it,” he added.
Mr Mbadi said that, when the house resumes its sittings next Tuesday, he will be using his position to demand for accountability from the government on various issues every Thursday.
He told the Nation that he has already written to National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi for allocation of time every Thursday to make a statement in relation to the oversight role of the minority side as stipulated in Standing Order 44 (2).
“Despite the Handshake, we cannot just wait for government bills and support them. We need to put the government in check and that is what I’ll start doing,” Mr Mbadi said.
But their fights aside, University of Nairobi linguistics lecturer Herman Manyora told the Nation that, in reality, the country has no opposition.
“We don’t have opposition in this country but if you are looking for opposition within the government, then we have it,” Mr Manyora said.
He dismissed the DP’s allies’ demands to play the opposition role. Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD-Kenya) Executive Director Frankline Mukwanja said that, constitutionally, the office of the Minority Leader should play the opposition role but pointed out that it is weak because the positions were donated by the party leader and the holder has to take instructions from him.
“On the surface we have the opposition but it has inherent weaknesses caused by the constitution. Imagine if we could have Raila Odinga sitting in the Parliament as the official leader of opposition, the situation would have been different. We need to check our Constitution on this,” Mr Mukwanja told the Nation .
“We need to have the real opposition leader in Parliament, the one who does not take instructions from outside.”
Opposition leaders have had a hard time convincing voters that they can still keep the government in check while at the same time working with it.
After Wiper Democratic Party leader Kalonzo Musyoka joined ODM leader Raila Odinga in working with President Uhuru Kenyatta, only Mr Musalia Mudavadi and Mr Moses Wetang’ula remain as notable opposition figures.
The Nasa coalition strode into Parliament in 2017 with a combined strength of 123 MPs, a numerical advantage that they initially used well to keep the government in check, but this was completely eroded with the March 2018 Handshake.
