MPs warned they may lose job early

Parliament may be dissolved as early as January 4, Speaker Kenneth Marende said on Thursday.

He told MPs that after this date, many of them will have changed parties, altering the composition of the House and making it impossible to transact business.

This is the date by which those seeking elective posts should have filed their sponsoring parties with the Registrar of Political Parties.

Many MPs are shifting allegiance from the parties that sponsored them to this Parliament.

For example, Orange has lost legislators to the United Republican Party, The National Alliance and United Democratic Forum.

Others who were in the Party of National Unity, have gone to TNA, Kanu, and Orange.

This means that once MPs officially desert the parties that brought them to the House, their membership in the House would be untenable.

“I am not certain that after January 4, next year, this Parliament will continue to transact business. Be careful on what business you can do,” Mr Marende warned the Deputy Leader of Government Business, Mr Amos Kimunya.

He said MPs will not be around on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, because, naturally it is a holiday.

He added that on New Year’s Day, they can not sit, either. That means, that between now and Christmas Day, MPs have just three sitting days. They were scheduled to break for Christmas on December 20 .

“I see danger myself, and urge the minister to see that danger,” Mr Marende said, noting that if the Order Paper (parliamentary timetable) continues to stay crowded, then MPs might be biting more than they can actually chew.

The Speaker was also worried that many MPs had already stopped doing their parliamentary duties and have thus been absent from the House sittings, since Parliament came from recess. Many of them are out in the constituencies campaigning for seats.

The numbers of MPs in the House has been varying between two MPs and 31, at any given time over the past fortnight.

Thursday saw the highest attendance of 35 MPs. The quorum for Parliament as per the Standing Orders is 30 MPs.

“It is likely that going into next week, we’re unlikely to see more than 10 MPs in the House,” Mr Marende said.

He said the House Business Committee, which decides what Parliament discusses, schedules everything to earlier than December 20.

“It is a realistic forecast. Be practical about what you can do and what you cannot do,” Mr Marende said.