MPs outdo predecessors by passing record 170 laws

MPs will have passed at least 170 laws by the time Parliament rises for perhaps the last time in the current term on Thursday next week.

They could be more, as the only statistics available as at this evening were on the National Assembly alone, where by the end of the Fourth Session last year, 160 Bills had been passed.

By the time the House went for a break at the beginning of April, giving the MPs time to go for party nominations, an additional 10 Bills had become law.

POWER HOUSE
Going by this number, there have been three Bills for every month that the current Parliament has been sitting, making it a power house that churns out laws regularly.

Of this number, according to statistics made available by the National Assembly, 28 were meant to implement the Constitution.

Overall, the laws were more than double those handled by the previous Parliament since as at the end of the Fourth Session of that House, 81 Bills had been approved.

END OF TENURE
More than 500 motions were introduced and considered.

Some resulted in Bills, such as the requirement in the law for the government to provide sanitary pads for all school-going children and ranking of schools in national examinations.

A motion for the support of education on cancer was approved and converted into the Cancer (Amendment) Bill.

Parliament’s term ends, as per Article 102 of the Constitution, on the date of the next General Election.

EMERGENCY SITTING
Speaker Justin Muturi said today that despite the indefinite adjournment — otherwise known as adjournment sine die — there is still a provision for a House sitting to be held if necessary.

“If there is an emergency, the members of the House that has adjourned sine die would still be recalled. Under the current dispensation, the Leader of the Majority or Minority can write to the Speaker to recall the House,” Mr Muturi said.

Among the 170 Bills that the House approved, and were subsequently enacted, two caused the biggest controversy and physical confrontations of the National Assembly.

These were the Security Laws Amendment Act and the Election Laws Amendment Act.

MPs FIGHT
Enacted in December 2014, the Security Laws Amendment Act was to make changes to a variety of laws to do with the security sector.

These were however opposed because a good number were in breach of the Constitution.

The final day of sittings in 2014 was characterised by brawls in the House and the galleries as lawmakers fought each other.

Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso was attacked with water as she presided over the Third Reading of the Bill while Mr Muturi had one of the heavy law books thrown at him.

There was similar chaos in December last year as the Opposition tried to stop the amendment of the Elections Act to allow the use of manual verification in case the electronic method fails.