Absent MPs stall House business

Kenya’s MPs Wednesday stalled morning business in Parliament when they failed to turn up to ask questions and debate two crucial motions.

The morning session just took 10-minutes as the temporary deputy Speaker, Mr Gitobu Imanyara (Imenti Central, CCU), dropped eight questions and one motion in accordance with the Standing Orders.

The other motion –to put in place a 21-member committee to investigate the plight of the displaced people --was put to a verbal vote. It was endorsed by the 27 MPs who were in the House –three short of the Constitutional quorum.

Mr Imanyara called out each of the eight questions twice, but none of those who had put in questions rose to ask. They were not in the House.

MPs Isaac Ruto (Chepalungu, ODM), Jeremiah Kioni (Ndaragwa, PNU) and Mohammed Hussein Ali (Mandera East, ODM) rushed into the House, but it was too late for them to make Mr Imanyara rescind his ruling to drop the questions.

The premature adjournment of the House arises out of a combination of factors including MPs lateness, lethargy and complacency.

But assistant minister Aden Duale attributed the adjournment to MPs threat on Tuesday that they’ll paralyse House business until the government publishes the list of the 80 new constituencies in the Kenya gazette.

The moment the House rose, Mr Duale said “it was just the beginning” of their boycott of House business to coerce the Executive to gazette the constituencies’ list.

However, the MPs whose questions had been dropped gave other reasons for their failure to ask questions.

Mr Zakayo Cheruiyot (Kuresoi, ODM) said he was not in the House because he “thought” his question had been listed in this afternoon’s Order Paper. He had wanted the Education minister to address the influx of the displaced people, most of them squatters kicked out of the Mau Forest in eight primary schools in his constituency.

“I did not want to miss (asking that question). Now, I will have to re-organise it,” Mr Cheruiyot told the Nation.

Mr Kioni, who was seen running to Parliament just as it adjourned, said he had gone to see House Speaker Kenneth Marende to discuss his question.

Indeed, Mr David Ngugi (Kinangop, PNU) had alerted the Mr Imanyara that Mr Kioni was in the Speaker’s office, but then, he was ruled out of order. The House rules are clear that an MP has to be in the Parliament to ask questions.

“I was surprised to find that my question had been dropped,” he said. He said he hadn’t boycotted.

Ms Sofia Abdi Noor (nominated, ODM-K) was scheduled to initiate debate on a report that studied the plight of IDPs in Mai Mahiu, Gilgil and Kurbanyat. But she too was not in the House.

Ms Sofia said she was informed late Tuesday that the House Business Committee had placed the report in the Order Paper for debate.

“I was in my office by 7.30 a.m, to go through the report. I left my office for Parliament at 9.00 a.m, but as I reached the door, I saw Mr Imanyara adjourning the proceedings. I am going to the Clerk to protest and have it reinstated,” she said.

MPs and ministers have been coming late to Parliament on Wednesday morning and most keep giving the “stuck in traffic” excuse to the Speaker for them to be given a chance to ask questions.

Mr Imanyara did not wait for the excuses –though apart from Mr Ngugi’s excuse on Mr Kioni’s question, no other excuse was forthcoming.