The supremacy war between the two Houses of Parliament took a new twist after National Assembly Majority Leader Aden Duale cautioned Cabinet Secretaries on Wednesday that they risk being impeached if they honour Senate invites which are “immaterial”.
In a high-octane debate on the special motion in which the National Assembly is seeking the approval to move to the High Court to get a determination on the mandate of the National Assembly within the bicameral setup of parliament, Duale categorically noted that MPs would not take it lightly if members of the Executive defy the directive.
“Senate has no powers to impeach Cabinet Secretaries so even if they indict or threaten them the only House that vets and have powers to remove state officers from office is the National Assembly,” he said amid applause from his colleagues present during the debate on the floor of the House on Wednesday.
Senators have found themselves at cross-hairs with their colleagues in the National Assembly after being repeatedly accused of duplicating the legislative, representative, oversight roles and the organizational and institutional structures exercised by the National Assembly.
Senate Committees which have “notoriously” been accused of overstepping their mandate include: Defense and Foreign Relations, National Security, Education and Energy committees.
“I want to thank CS Matiangi for his move to seek an advisory opinion from the Attorney General over some of the roles the Senate Committees play. Going forward we will be able to ask CSs to define on what grounds they appear before some of these Senate Committees,” he said.
The Garissa Township lawmaker noted that the Cabinet Secretaries frequent appearances before some of the Senate Committees had become worrisome even to the President who had raised concerns over their regular trips to Parliament.
“The President is even worried about this matter. We need to put it at rest once and for all,” he said.
National Assembly Minority Leader John Mbadi faulted Senators for being “ignorant on the law” with regards to their mandate citing the Division of Revenue Bill 2019 stalemate that has seen both Houses fail to reach a consensus on the shareable revenue to the devolved units.
Mbadi referred Senators as being “legislative bandits” who were out to take up the responsibility and functions of the National Assembly in an effort to expand their roles.
“The constitution is very clear on the role of the Senate. Its interpretation only needs someone to be literate and of sober mind to understand that the roles have been clearly defined,” he said.
The House Minority Whip Junet Mohammed described the Senators as busybodies who were wasting public resources at the expense of the ordinary Kenyan.
Mohammed said the failure by the Senate to stick to its mandate was part of the reason why he has been rooting for a referendum in the country.
“My personal opinion is that we need to have a referendum so that we can scrap this Senate. We cannot have a Senate of people masquerading claiming to know everything, it needs to stop,” he said.
He vowed to petition the court in a bid to challenge the constitutionality of the offices of the Majority and Minority leaders in the Senate arguing that the privileges accorded to them were irregular.
In a quick rejoinder during their Wednesday afternoon session, Leader of Majority in the Senate Kipchumba Murkomen said they will not be cowed by the MPs threats and vowed to continue inviting Cabinet Secretaries to appear before committees where they so deem fit.
“We will continue inviting Cabinet Secretaries to appear before us. We cannot be intimidated and let that be known,” he said.
He pointed out that the National Assembly was “envious” of the work the Senate had executed overtime.
He accused the MPs particularly Duale of playing the inferiority card insisting that Senators had no time to entertain such “petty” talk.
“We do not suffer inferiority complex and those driving that narrative should be advised that we will continue being servants of Kenyans. We want to tell them that we are not interested in entering into a big fight with them. We cannot be intimidated we are beyond that,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader James Orengo said it was hypocritical of the National Assembly to purport that Senate had no business in the law making process.
“The way they speak about the Senate is so demeaning and I want to remind them that if they continue with that language they want to kill devolution,” he said.
He said the participation of the Senate in reference to the passage of Bills was very vital, equating their input as a quality control measure citing countries like USA who have found a way on how the two Houses relate.
“We have no alternative but to go to court and have this matter determined once for all or else they will kill this Senate like they did many years ago,” he said.
The debate comes after it emerged that Senators were moving to the High Court to file a law suit where they are challenging the legality of 14 laws they claim were enacted by the National Assembly without their input.
