Kibaki, Raila faulted over MPs' meeting

President Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga broke the law when they summoned MPs to a meeting to discuss crucial matters that are pending in the House, an MP has said.

Addressing journalists in Parliament’s Media Centre in Nairobi Tuesday, a member of the Speaker’s Panel Gitobu Imanyara (Imenti Central), said the two principals had erred in seeking to “compromise MPs” ahead of parliamentary debate on the nominees to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission and the Finance Bill.

The two items are scheduled for debate in the afternoon.

“It is an abuse of office, an unconstitutional interference with the legislative functions of Parliament. Parliament is required to perform its tasks in public, to allow the people to know what’s going on,” said the Imenti Central MP, whose position in the Speaker’s Panel allows him to moderate the debate in the House when the Speaker and his deputy are absent.

Mr Imanyara said the summoning of the MPs to strike a deal at a time when the Executive sought to bulldoze its agenda through the House was an affront to the doctrine of separation of powers. He said such practices were rife during the Moi regime.

Then, Mr Imanyara said, MPs would be herded to State House or the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, given “money and other Christmas gifts and then come to Parliament to rubberstamp the regime’s wishes”.

“To hold or to purport to hold important dialogue on crucial national issues in private, on the hallowed grounds of KICC VIP lounge is not an act of good governance; is not transparent; is not an act of integrity and is in fact a corrupt practice,” the Imenti Central MP said.

“What is going on there in secret is clearly a subversion of the Constitution. It is not right to acquiesce to an invitation that is illegal and unlawful,” he added.

He said he would raise the matter in the House.

“These are critical matters of national importance that cannot be subjected to censorship. The Constitution permits the President to sit in the House as an ordinary MP for Othaya. The Prime Minister has enough time every Wednesday to tell MPs what is required. They should use these opportunities,” he said.

The  MP said that once the government puts an issue in the Order Paper (Parliament’s timetable), it is imprudent for MPs to go ahead and try to discuss the matter in secret, so as to decide beforehand how they’re going to vote.

“Nobody says that consultation is bad, but that must also be done within the law. Night meetings and kamukunjis would be the order of the day if we let such practices to go on, and that will subvert the Constitution,” Mr Imanyara said.

He added that the Constitution must be “protected daily” or else the people in power would use all within their powers to ensure that the dreams and hopes enshrined in the Constitution are not realised.

The Executive has lately been uneasy over the MPs push for the control of banks’ interest rates. The Cabinet says such a move would lead to hyper-inflation.