As the Senate resumes plenary sittings today (July 18, 2023) after a two-week recess, it faces division and infighting over the leadership of Speaker Amason Kingi.
The Speaker has been facing backlash from senators, mostly from the minority side, over his handling of Senate matters, including the Parliamentary Service Commission’s (PSC) budget cut for Senate committees.
On Wednesday last week, Deputy Speaker Kathuri Murungi, who is also the chairperson of the Liaison Committee, announced the suspension of all Senate committees meetings protesting the cuts.
However, County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee Chairman Godfrey Osotsi defied the boycott by holding a meeting with Siaya County government officials.
“It is the same people who have been lobbying for the Senate to be sidelined in the budget process who are calling for a boycott. It is ironic,” said Mr Osotsi.
Some committee chairpersons were left stunned after the boycott was quickly lifted even after an emergency meeting on Thursday involving all of them and the PSC failed to reach an agreement.
“Senator Murungi was under pressure from the Speaker and the majority leader. Some of us walked out when we realised that he had called the meeting to get legitimacy to reverse the boycott but fundamental issues raised on the budget had not been resolved,” said one of the chairpersons.
Another senator expressed concern over the opaque manner in which the secretariat and leadership of the Senate were managing its budget. He alleged that the secretariat and leadership have been allocated most of the funds, leaving the committees, which are the engine of the House, to suffer.
“You cut the budget for committees but you put Sh100 million for the purchase of motor vehicles. The Clerk’s office has a foreign budget of Sh150 million but committees have a budget of only Sh19 million,” he said.
The senator lamented that the Senate has ceded ground to the National Assembly, leaving it to determine its budget when the two Houses are supposed to be equal.
Recently, the PSC imposed a ceiling on the budget of Senate committees for meetings held outside the precincts of Parliament, capping the amount at Sh4.7 million per committee per year. This, according to the senator, has forced most committees to work on most of their reports in Nairobi due to budgetary constraints.
PSC is chaired by Mr Wetang’ula deputised by nominated Senator Joyce Korir, while Senate Clerk Jeremiah Nyegenye is the commission’s secretary. Of the 10 commissioners, five are members of the National Assembly, three are senators and the remaining two are members of the public.
Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang’ said the first and second senates had fought hard to assert their position, but all the gains were being eroded by the current leadership.
He pointed out that the first Senate under Ekwe Ethuro went to the Supreme Court for a ruling on the role of Parliament in revenue sharing and won. Under Mr Kingi’s predecessor, Kenneth Lusaka, the House again went to the Supreme Court to assert that Article 110 on concurrence was mandatory.
But he lamented that in the third Senate, Mr Kingi had decided to throw away all the gains made.
“I am worried that the gains of the first and second senates are being eroded because the Speaker is more interested in serving the masters at State House than the public. Kingi has completely abdicated his duty and reversed all the gains we made in the last two parliaments,” Mr Kajwang’ said.
The senator argued that the third Senate under Mr Kingi was also constitutionally shooting itself in the foot, ceding to the National Assembly some of the powers that the courts have decided rest in the Senate.
“Now you have a Speaker who swears an affidavit that a Bill (Finance Bill) that affects county governments does not affect counties. What does that do to the position of the High Court, which nullified 23 laws for lack of concurrence?” he asked.
