Full tray for lawmakers as Houses reopen

President Uhuru Kenyatta hands over the EACC report to National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi (left) and Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro after the State of the Nation address in Parliament on March 26, 2015. PHOTO | BILLY MUTAI |

What you need to know:

  • Hot issues in the National Assembly include three Bills on land, Elections Act amendments, and draft law to amend Constitution.
  • Both Houses will also oversee the implementation of key Jubilee coalition projects that were among the major things it promised to do in its five years in power.
  • National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi last week raised the alarm on the timing of the 2017 polls.

MPs will this afternoon start their fourth year in office, with the Budget, the reconstitution of five crucial committees and Bills to implement the Constitution at the top of the agenda.

In the National Assembly, the hot issues include three controversial Bills on land, a draft law to amend the Constitution on the fulfilment of the gender principle and a raft of changes to the Elections Act ahead of the General Election next year.

In the Senate, a proposed new formula for sharing funds among counties and a Bill to amend the Constitution and extend the term of the Transition Authority will also be considered.

Both Houses will also oversee the implementation of key Jubilee coalition projects that were among the major things it promised to do in its five years in power.

Among these are laptops for Standard One pupils, the plan to have one million acres under irrigation at the Galana-Kulalu ranch and the standard gauge railway.

This will also be the year in which the MPs decide on whether to change the date of the next election, as well as oversee the implementation of the Constitution, now in its sixth year.

The election is scheduled to take place on August 8, 2017.

National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi last week raised the alarm on the timing of the election, which he said would plunge the country into a crisis regarding the Budget, which would include finances for the poll.

Mr Muturi said this would arise because Parliament would be adjourned 60 days before the election, the deadline stipulated in the Elections Act for party nominations.

“It will also be difficult in an election year to get requisite quorum to pass very serious agenda in Parliament during the last quarter of the election year since members will be busy on the ground battling for re-election,” said Mr Muturi.

Sixty days to the election would be early June, around the same time the Budget Statement is read in Parliament by the Treasury Cabinet secretary, and just weeks to the end of the financial year on June 30.

If the date remains, said the Speaker, he would have to recall the House for a special sitting to have the MPs approve the Budget for the 2017/2018 financial year.

“They are just going to be very casual. They are not going to pay attention to what is being discussed,” he said.

Mr Nzamba Kitonga, who chaired the defunct Committee of Experts, told the Nation that Mr Muturi's assertion is speculative.

“I think those are challenges that can be addressed without having to change the Constitution. These things can be done in such a way that both processes take place,” said Mr Kitonga in an interview.

He said the second Tuesday of August was not selected haphazardly.

“This was a very widely discussed date, even with the MPs themselves. They said December is time for the rains, there are holidays and festivities, and the suggestion was August, when schools are closed. It’s the dry season,” said Mr Kitonga.

He said this was the reason the date was not a contentious issue and was not changed by the Parliamentary Select Committee that met in Naivasha in early 2010 to work on the draft.

Mr Samuel Chepkong’a (Ainabkoi, URP), the chairman of the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, told the Nation that the team was convinced that there was no way to avoid an amendment to the Constitution in the matter. The budget cycle is also entrenched in the country’s supreme law.