Crucial House team fails to elect new chair

Members of the troubled Justice and Legal Affairs Committee Tuesday failed to elect a new chairman.

There were only five MPs at the meeting held in Parliament buildings, against a membership of 11 MPs in the committee meaning there was no quorum to elect a new chair.

Those who turned up in an attempt to put the committee back on track were: vice chairman Njoroge Baiya (Githunguri), Abdikadir Mohammed (Mandera Central), Eugene Wamalwa (Saboti), Amina Abdalla (nominated) and Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu).

All the 11 MPs had been called to the meeting to replace current chairman Ababu Namwamba (Budalang’i). The meeting will now be held Thursday.

Mr Baiya told the Nation after the meeting that the House team was keen to get back on track regarding the scrutiny of laws that have to be passed as the country goes ahead with the implementation of the Constitution.

He declined to say if any of the MPs in the committee had already declared their interest in the seat.

Deputy Speaker Farah Maalim, as the chairman of the Liaison Committee had asked the members of the Justice and Legal Affairs to pick a new chair and get on with their mandate of ensuring that all constitutional laws are implemented.

The row in the committee began in February, when Mr Namwamba failed to woo the majority of the MPs in the team to reject President Kibaki’s nominees to the position of Chief Justice, Attorney General, Controller of Budget and Director of Public Prosecutions.

Many of the MPs took sides based on their political parties and supported the nominations which the Speaker, the High Court and the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution termed as unconstitutional.

Mr Namwamba and two of his colleagues in the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party – Olago Aluoch (Kisumu Town West) and Millie Odhiambo (nominated) — joined hands and wrote a minority report terming the controversial nominations of four constitutional office holders illegal. The rest of the team supported the nominations arguing that the President was right.

In the stormy meetings over the matter, the MPs clashed with Mr Namwamba and said they were unhappy about the way he led the committee.

It is then that the vice chairman Njoroge Baiya (Githunguri, PNU), George Omari Nyamweya (nominated, PNU), Amina Abdallah (nominated, Kanu), Abdikadir Mohammed (Mandera Central, Safina), Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu, ODM) and Mutava Musyimi (Gachoka, PNU) wrote to the Clerk of the National Assembly seeking an ouster of the chairman.

The row persisted for four months as ODM MPs fought to block Mr Namwamba's ouster to an extent that the Speaker decided that all matters to do with the implementation of the Constitution should be handled by the Constitutional Implementation Oversight Committee.

Mr Namwamba took over the committee late last year after a stand-off between ODM and PNU over the leadership of the CIOC.

Mr Mohammed was the chairman of both committees and he had to relinquish his post at the Justice and Legal Affairs to Mr Namwamba.