MPs vow to block Senate amendment

More MPs have joined the debate against the proposed amendment to the Constitution to restore Kenya to a unicameral Parliament and get rid of the Senate.

MPs David Ngugi (Kinangop, Sisi kwa Sisi), Mohammed Affey (Nominated, ODM-K) and Adan Duale (Dujis, ODM) have vowed to rally their colleagues in opposition to the proposed amendment by Jeremiah Kioni (Ndaragwa, PNU).

They said the removal of the Senate would water down the gains envisaged from the implementation of the Constitution and the creation of two houses of Parliament.

They also argued that Mr Kioni should have rejected the creation of the Senate at the meetings of the select committee that oversaw the review process.

“We have not even got to a quarter (of what we need to do) of the implementation of the Constitution. We can’t start mutilating it even before we are done implementing,” said Mr Ngugi.

Mr Duale alleged that Mr Kioni represents a clique within the government that is hell-bent on mutilating the Constitution and undermining devolution.

He challenged the Ndaragwa MP, who sat with the press at the news conference at Parliament Buildings, to come clean and say who he represents with the proposal.

But Mr Kioni denied the allegations and challenged his colleagues to come up with concrete points against his proposal.

“We don’t want to reduce this debate to the level of personal attacks. My colleagues are engaged in shadow-boxing and I can see they are panicking,” said Mr Kioni.

“The thinking that one can talk only when they are asked to talk is archaic. That belongs to the Kanu era,” he added.

He said he has proposed the amendment on the basis that it would be expensive to run the two houses of Parliament and the Senate has a small mandate.

There would also be conflicts between senators and county governors on superiority, said Mr Kioni.

The Senate will have 67 members while the National Assembly’s numbers will go up from the current 222 to 349.

Mr Kioni argues that with 416 members, plus the county governors, and each taking home about Sh1 million per month, the wage bill would be a huge burden on the taxpayer.

He reckons that the money saved by getting rid of the Senate would be put to better use in the counties.

He also argues that the work of the Senate can be handled by a Parliamentary Committee such as that on the Local Authority Transfer Funds.

But the other MPs argued that getting rid of the Senate would directly affect devolution and water it down in the same way it happened with the old Constitution.

Mr Affey said the promise that the fruits of the Constitution would be realised after the next elections would also not be fulfilled if the Senate was to be killed.

MPs Danson Mungatana and Peter Kenneth have also vowed to oppose the amendment if and when it is published and presented in Parliament for debate and possible approval.