Speaker splashed with water in House chaos

Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba and Suba MP John Mbadi protest after Cord senators were barred from the Speaker’s Gallery in Parliament on December 18, 2014. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE |

What you need to know:

  • Senator’s trousers torn as opposition MPs employ all tricks in the book to block debate but eventually fail.
  • Normally the House does not transact business when more than one MP is on their feet.

MPs on Thursday shamed the National Assembly by fighting, hurling abuse at each other and one splashing water on Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso.

Kenyans watched live on national television as their representatives exchanged blows, tore copies of the Order Paper (the official record of the day’s transactions) and fought for control of the mace.

They had been recalled for a special session to debate the controversial security laws that had been criticised for taking away some civil liberties guaranteed in the Constitution.

Machakos Senator Johnson Muthama, who was sitting with senators James Orengo, Boni Khalwale, Moses Wetang’ula in the Public Gallery, had his trouser and shirt torn in a scuffle.

THROWN OUT

The Senate was not in session, but the Cord-affiliated senators were in the House as observers when the Speaker ordered them thrown out for shouting during debate.

The laws were later passed with amendments, with orderlies protecting the Speaker from opposition leaders who were shouting at him from close quarters, some throwing papers and books at him.

The mace was guarded by seven orderlies and the serjeant-at-arms to protect the authority of the House from being grabbed by the rowdy MPs.

The stage for the ignominy and chaos had been set in the morning, when MPs came to the House to find the entire area around Parliament secured by police.

WARNED MPS

Speaker Justin Muturi appeared to anticipate the chaos when he took the unusual step of warning MPs against misbehaving.

The tradition in most Commonwealth parliaments is for the Speaker to remain “unaware” of events until an MP raises his attention to happenings in the chamber.

The Speaker then invokes the standing orders, which are House rules, or when it is not provided for, makes a ruling.

Objects were hurled at the Speaker, MPs were cursing, pushing and shoving each other and others were fighting with senators in the public gallery as the controversial Bill on security was passed in a day of drama never seen before in the National Assembly.

Cord MPs stuck to the instructions of their leaders and arrived in the National Assembly for the special sitting prepared to stop the Bill’s passage by any means. Eventually, they failed.

LABOSO SPLASHED

In the morning, Suba MP John Mbadi grabbed the Order Paper from Mr Asman Kamama and tore it up and in the evening, and Homa Bay Woman Representative Gladys Wanga splashed water on Dr Laboso to stop the third reading of the Bill.

Later, the House approved the appointment of retired Major-General Joseph Nkaissery as Interior Cabinet secretary.

After a lot of filibustering (delaying tactics) by Cord MPs, Mr Muturi took charge and was pelted with huge law books, sheets from the Order Paper and water bottles as he guided the passage of the Bill.

Mvita MP Abdulswamad Sherif stood on a bench and shouted. In the middle of this, the serjeant-at-arms formed a phalanx around the Speaker, blocking the missiles.

This happened as the MPs milled around, with some standing guard as Mr Kamama read out the amendments and the Jubilee MPs who could hear him shouting “Aye”.

STORMING THE CHAMBER

Outside the main chamber, Senate leaders Kithure Kindiki and Moses Wetang’ula conferred. Some Cord senators had unsuccessfully tried to storm the chamber, but police officers thwarted their bid.

The officers were among extra security deployed to Parliament, where MPs arrived to find the public and press galleries inaccessible to everyone except parliamentary staff.

Before the drama in the morning, Mr Muturi had warned MPs against bad behaviour, particularly the grabbing of the mace, something that happened last Thursday.

He told the MPs that they risked losing their allowances and eventually their seats for misbehaving.

OUT OF ORDER

When he finished, Budalang’i MP Ababu Namwamba challenged the ruling but was ruled out of order. Mr Namwamba condemned the cordoning off of Parliament by police officers.

Mr Mbadi and other MPs from ODM then unsuccessfully tried to get the Speaker to stop the proceedings. Suna East MP Junet Mohammed tried to ask the Speaker to convene an informal meeting to agree on the amendments. He was turned down.

Ruaraka MP Tom Kajwang’ then begged to make a statement and asked for a break to allow MPs who wanted to make amendments to prepare them.

Deputy Minority Leader Jakoyo Midiwo asked the Speaker to rule on the constitutional issues in the Bill but that was equally batted away.

FILIBUSTERING

Then came the drama. With the noise almost drowning him out and Dr Laboso having to deal with the fact that all Cord MPs were on their feet at the same time, Mr Kamama had successfully proposed amendments to the first four clauses of the Bill when Mr Mbadi strolled across the floor, his hands in the air.

Normally, the House does not transact business when more than one MP are on their feet.

Mr Bare Shill (Fafi, URP) was angry at the filibustering.

“Our colleagues on the other side have a different agenda. Their agenda is to cause havoc because they see they don’t have the numbers.

“They are trying to treat this House like what we used to see in the Nairobi City Council, and most of them are on the other side,” he said.