A gene that is peculiar to Gem legislators

What is the common gene that runs through Gem MPs?

When MP Jakoyo Midiwo went to Parliament with proposed amendments to the Finance Bill, he perhaps did not know the blood (or is it blood group?) that runs through his veins and those before him.

Since Kenya was a colony and after independence, Gem has produced MPs with a knack for philanthropy and what can be termed a legalistic gene.

Even without a legal background, they have had a propensity to fight for Kenyans’ rights.

So when Midiwo went to Parliament armed with an amendment seeking to cap interest rates, he was fulfilling a legacy bequeathed by founding MP, the famous Chiedo Mar Gem Argwings-Kodhek and those who came after him.

Midiwo seeks to restrict banks from charging not more than four percentage points on loans on top of the prevailing Central Bank rate of 18.5, meaning 22.5 per cent.

He also wants banks to pay interest on savings at 70 per cent of the same rate, meaning 12.5 per cent.

Here are common facts about Gem MPs rarely rivalled and only copied thrice by legislators outside the constituency since independence.

Argwings teamed up with Jean Marrie Seroney, the independence Nandi County MP for Tinderet to draft and negotiate the first Constitution with Jomo Kenyatta and other freedom heroes at the Lancaster House talks.

Then came Isaac Omollo Okero, another lawyer who was to initiate every law governing electricity use in Kenya when he was Power and Communication minister in the 1970s.

The late Dr Oki Ooko Ombaka, a lawyer who won the seat in 1992, founded Kituo Cha Sheria, an institution that gives free legal aid to Kenyans who cannot afford it.

His successor, Joe Donde, in 1998 single-handedly introduced the popular Banking (Amendment) Bill, commonly known as the Donde Bill that sought to do what Midiwo is asking Parliament to do now.

Though it was opposed vehemently, it nonetheless introduced the in duplum rule which caps interest rate accumulation at not more than the money borrowed.

This means if a loan was Sh150,000, a bank stops charging interest when it reaches Sh300,000. Donde and Midiwo are not lawyers.

Only three MPs, one nominated, have rivalled the Gem legislators. Slain former Nyandarua North MP Josiah Mwangi Kariuki introduced the Hire Purchase law in 1968 to enable Kenyans to buy goods on credit.

Supreme Court judge Justice Njoki Ndung’u brought the Sexual Offences law while she was a nominated MP in 2006.

Lastly, John Mututho of Naivasha has made a name for himself with the famous “Mututho law” which restricts the sale of alcohol to specific hours.