Why House business won’t be the same

MPs during the election of Speaker of the New National Assembly.

By Peter Opiyo

KENYA: The new Constitution has set up a Bicameral Parliament; significantly changing the way MPs will transact business in the House.

Unlike the past unicameral system, the current set up has the Senate and the National Assembly, each with separate functions with some similarities though. But the outstanding aspect is that none of the members of the Executive sits in Parliament.

This means question time, which was the source of drama and considered a light session by the nature of issues it dealt with, is not on the menu.

Previously, Cabinet ministers were also MPs and they represented the Executive in Parliament, therefore they were the responders to questions and also delivered Government statement solicited or otherwise.

The question time that lasted for one hour each sitting could extend to even two and a half hours, depending on who was on the Speaker’s Chair. It was not considered core business of the House, but to whet MPs’ appetite as they prepared to debate Bills and Motions.

Bomet Governor Isaac Ruto, Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko, and then Cherangany MP Joshua Kuttuny were some of the faces that swam in the glory of question time, cracking jokes to light up humdrum debates.

Mumias East MP Benjamin Washiali says the new system would ensure Parliament uses its time effectively.

“This is a good system because we were misusing parliamentary time on questions. Now we are going to use our time better because we will be legislating on national issues as compared to questions that just focused on narrow areas of interest to a few MPs,” said Washiali, who was the ODM Deputy Chief Whip in the last Parliament.

He points out the time allocated to questions could now be used to discuss and debate national policy issues.

Following the new set up new Standing Orders have been adopted to guide the business of the two Houses. The new rules have set aside a 30-minute duration for members to make statements of general concern. The Speaker would interrupt business of the House every Tuesday at 6pm to facilitate members to make general statements on topical issues.

New rules

Also in the new rules is the Statement Hour every Thursday starting at 3pm. During this time, a member of the House Business Committee – the committee that defines the agenda of the House – shall within ten minutes present to the House the business to be transacted the following week.

During this time the Leader of the Majority Party, or the Leader of the Minority Party, may make a statement relating to their responsibilities in the House or the activities of a parliamentary committee.

The time would also be preserved for any MP to request for a statement from the committee chairperson relating to matters under the mandate of the committee and the Speaker may either appoint a day for the statement or direct that the statement be issued on the same day.

Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi says the new system presents the committees with enhanced duties, which would package them as powerful units where the core functions of Parliament would revolve.

“In this new set up, the committees would be very powerful because even grilling of Cabinet Secretaries would be done at the committees,” Muturi told The Standard On Sunday.

Committee chairmen or designated members would also be tasked with initiating debates on Government Bills or Motions, unlike in the past when it was a preserve of the Cabinet ministers.

“When the Cabinet was part of Parliament it was the responsibility of the Cabinet ministers to move Government Bills, but now it would be the committee chairmen to take up this responsibility,” says the Speaker, further pointing out that the governing coalition would also appoint any of its MPs to move Government Bills. Speaker of the Senate Ekwe Ethuro says the new system ensures Parliament would perform legislation and oversight as its key functions.

“This new dispensation ensures Parliament has only one key function, which is legislation and we expect this to be more robust,” points out Ethuro.

The committees’ roles, he says, would be enhanced under the new order given it would be the point where the Executive would get to meet the Legislature.

“Committees will have a lot of work, and it is important to point out that committees’ work has been evolving and in the 11th Parliament it has now come of age,” Ethuro stated.

The new Standing Orders have established a Committee on Appointments that would vet Cabinet Secretaries and other appointees to key public positions before seeking the National Assembly’s approval. This committee has the Speaker and the Deputy, the Leader of the Majority Party, the Leader of the Minority Party, their deputies, and not more than 22 other MPs nominated in line with political parties’ strength.

The new Constitution also bestows upon Parliament the role of participating in budget making, where every departmental committee scrutinises budgets of line ministries and subject them to public participation before adoption at the plenary.

“The Cabinet Secretary in charge of Finance would present the budget estimates to Parliament and then the estimates would be given to relevant ministries which will scrutinise them within 21 days before forwarding the estimates for adoption at the plenary,” said Muturi.