MPs engage in fist-fight, insults during special sitting

Election law drama: CORD, Jubilee lock horns over electoral law

What you need to know:

  • Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi was forced to intervene twice to extend sessions in the morning and afternoon after legislators engaged in non-core functions of the day.
  • The legislators endorsed a proposal to limit external borrowing by the Treasury to Sh500 billion but in a decision roiled with delaying tactics from opposition MPs as they bid to avoid debating proposed changes to electoral laws.

Members of Parliament engaged in fist-fights as they haggled over how to use added time forcing a live broadcast of the session to be switched off as Cord MPs tried to grab the Mace.

The National Assembly diverted from its core mandate of debating and passing laws to haggling over whether a special sitting should end at 6.30pm so that MPs break for holidays.

It was one of chaotic scenes that involved insults, cat-calls and jeers on a day when MPs were recalled to pass a budget policy statement and change election laws.

Speaker of the National Assembly Justin Muturi was forced to intervene twice to extend sessions in the morning and afternoon after legislators engaged in non-core functions of the day.

“I am clear in my mind that a special sitting is not exempt from provisions of the standing order 30 regarding the hours of sitting. But in that standing order, there is discretion given to the speaker. For the convenience of the House, the speaker may direct earlier or later interruption of the House,” he ruled after an-hour-and half of stalemate over the extension.

“None of you has directed me on that particular aspect. There is need therefore to recover the lost time and I therefore direct that the House may continue to sit for a further 55 minutes after which the House shall stand adjourned. How you utilise that time is upon you,” he ruled.

The legislators endorsed a proposal to limit external borrowing by the Treasury to Sh500 billion but in a decision roiled with delaying tactics from opposition MPs as they bid to avoid debating proposed changes to electoral laws.

They endorsed Budget Policy Statement tabled by the Budget and Appropriations Committee to restrict the National Treasury from borrowing beyond six per cent of the GDP. It means that the government will not be allowed to borrow Sh582 billion (7 per cent of GDP) it intended to supplement the fiscal budget.

Instead, MPs recommended that the debt ceiling be restricted further in 2018 to five per cent of the GDP until it is at 4 per cent by 2020.

But these discussions diverted to stormy session in parliament as Jubilee-leaning MPs got restless over an apparent delay to start the third reading of the Election Laws Amendment Bill 2015 whose debate could change the way elections are managed next year.

This was a special sitting of the House and the notice for it indicated that the budget, election laws, approval of members of the Commission of Revenue Allocation, members of the Climate Change Council as well as approval of the Elections Campaign Financing Regulations 2016 was to be debated.

But opposition MPs started the day by delaying the House session by over two hours in the morning, before using delaying tactics to stop a discussion on the controversial laws by wanting to debate more on the budget.

While opposition argued the budget was the most important, the Jubilee side argued the MPs had a duty to also look at the proposed changes to the election laws that had in fact influenced the special sitting.

“The budget is the most important issue for us and we must also tell the nation what we feel,” Gem MP Jakoyo Midiwo who is also the Deputy Minority Leader argued.

But Majority Leader Aden Duale countered by saying the House had come back on a special sitting specifically to discuss all the issues on the order paper.

In the end, Speaker Muturi had to call for a vote on whether the mover of the motion should respond to the arguments. After pulling and pushing, the speaker orderrd a vote. The result was that 105 ayes, nays 76 in electronic voting while 39 ayes and 14 nays in the manual voting. It meant that 144 MPs had voted for it and 90 others opposed it.

But this was 6.45pm, way beyond the 6.30 deadline. When Suna East MP Junet Mohammed stood up to raise the question on why such a motion was being passed beyond allocated time, some Jubilee MPs shouted “NYS, NYS”, after his name was thrown around for having a hand in the National Youth Service (NYS) scandal.

It extended the storm with Mr Duale arguing the notice for the Special Sitting had not indicated time.

But Mr Midiwo told the House a day for the national assembly should end at 6pm as it is with normal sessions.

“Time for this House cannot be cooked. Mr Speaker allow us to go home for Christmas, please,” he said.

Would a Special Sitting be exempt from Standing Order 29, 30 or 256? It got complicated.

With time, the budget was forgotten as MPs tried to outdo each other by quoting the Standing Orders or insulting the other side using the NYS scandal as the code.

The legislators were discussing the Budget Statement and Debt Management Strategy for 2017/18 for the current budget accused the national government of being too optimistic about the economy and having “an appetite for borrowing” even when financial experts had warned of rising debt levels.

They were in agreement that there was a need to restrict borrowing especially since there had been little proper use of the borrowed money.

“To manage debt in this country, the National Treasury must check its appetite for borrowing, the government must strive to check its tendency for corruption and control wastage which we are witnessing,” said Rev Mutava Musyimi, the Chairman of the Committee.

Of concern to legislators is the suggestion from the national government that the economy could grow by 6.2 per cent in 2017 and 6.6 per cent in 2018.

“Significant resources have been invested in infrastructure and on improving the business environment. But we are not seeing efforts to widen the capital base. We are not putting serious and creative thinking to agriculture,” added Mr Musyimi as he moved the motion.

Suba MP John Mbadi said: “We have a Treasury that is still too optimistic about the economy. How realistic are these projections? We need to ask ourselves whether we are profiting other countries like China who are bringing so many resources in this country, including labour.

“Many Kenyans are asking, where is this economic growth? Prudent financial management require that you invest money that you borrow in sectors that are productive,” he added.

This year’s budget is worth Sh1.54 trillion with the counties getting Sh299.1 billion of shared revenues as well as a further Sh34 billion in grants from the national government, making it Sh333 billion.

But the executive, would take the lion’s share of the remaining money as Parliament takes Sh36 billion and Judiciary Sh18 billion. And MPs charged that the government has been poor at accounting for money.

“The major problem of budget making we have in this country is that no one tells us how previous budgets performed. With this ceiling, we are likely to curb corruption by obtaining feedback,” Gatundu North MP Francis Kigo who seconded the motion said.