Parliament gears for new Kenya law

Kenya’s Parliament is quietly getting ready for the implementation of the proposed new Constitution as the clock ticks towards the referendum.

Parliament’s administrative wing, the Parliamentary Service Commission has already dispatched MPs to different countries to study how the system of government provided in the new Constitution will work, should majority of Kenyans vote 'Yes’ on August 4.

The Daily Nation learnt that Kisumu Town West MP Olago Aluoch (ODM), Kigumo’s Jamleck Kamau (PNU) and Nambale’s Chris Okemo (ODM) left the country last week for a one-week study tour in Brazil.

Mr Aluoch said, House Speaker Kenneth Marende had dispatched the team to look at the Senate and study the workings of the regional government in Brazil.

“We are going there to study how the structure works, so that should the proposed Constitution sail through in the referendum, the commission is not taken by surprise in providing logistical support to the new system,” said Mr Aluoch, who sits in the Parliamentary Service Commission.

Mr Kamau, also a commissioner, heads Parliament’s Committee on Implementation that is likely to play a key liaison role to the Commission on the Implementation of the Constitution and Parliament’s Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee. Mr Okemo chairs the crucial House Committee on Finance, Trade, Planning and Tourism.

The Brazil trip comes at a time when another team of MPs is in the United States to examine how an expanded Parliament envisaged in the proposed new Constitution will give information to the public.

The team in America has members of the House Broadcasting Committee among them Mr David Koech (Mosop, ODM), Mr Peter Kiilu (Makueni, ODM-K), Mr Benjamin Washiali (Mumias, ODM) and Mr Clement Wambugu (Mathioya, PNU).

The Daily Nation learnt that the MPs had toured the Congress and the US Senate, met some senators and were taken through how the two houses complement each other in discharging the legislative mandate.

The team met a congressman from North Carolina, Mr David Price, also the chairman of House Democracy Partnership, and a member David Dreier, who are said to have asked the Kenyan lawmakers on the prospects of a new constitution.

The US team is also said to have insisted on knowing how the country is stabilising in the aftermath of the bloody 2007 General Election. Congress’s Deputy Clerk, Mr Robert Reeves is also said to have met the Kenyan delegation and briefed them on the legislative mandate of the Senate and the Congress.

If Kenyans endorse the new Constitution in the August 4 referendum, then the current membership of Parliament will rise from 222 members to 418 MPs---350 in the national assembly and 68 in the Senate. Also, most laws, including amendments to the Constitution and the allocation of funds to the counties, will have to be endorsed by both Houses.

The study tours to Brazil and America come within a fortnight after National Assembly’s Clerk Mr Patrick Gichohi and assistant minister David Musila (Defence) came from Malaysia with an offer to train Kenya’s Parliament staff, once the new Constitution become law 14 days after the official publication of referendum results.

While granting the offer, Malaysian House clerk Datuk Roosme Hamzah said his country was ready to host and train the Kenyan parliamentary staff on how to run a senate.