Define role of parliamentary committees

The parliamentary Committee on Land has waded into the controversy of the multibillion-shilling prime land in Karen, whose ownership is the subject of a high-profile court case.

At the centre of the dispute are claims that the land has been invaded by a group of influential individuals, among them public servants, including Members of Parliament.

Members of the committee visited the land last week and announced its intention to force Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu to appear before it. Mrs Ngilu, who has twice snubbed such summons, is now being told she must appear or get into trouble with the committee.

The entry of the committee into a matter that was already the subject of a court case and under investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) as well as the land commission raises fundamental questions about the role and involvement of House committees in matters that are or ought to be the preserve of the criminal investigation department and other relevant organs of government.

It also brings into focus the ability, capacity and professional competence of parliamentary committees to investigate intricate matters such as terrorism, corruption and crime.

WESTGATE ATTACK REPORT

Fresh in the minds of Kenyans is the laughable and embarrassing attempt by two parliamentary committees to investigate the 2013 terrorist attack on the Westgate Shopping Mall, whose report was rejected by Parliament on the grounds of incompetence.

The House has allowed its committees to investigate several matters. This has seen these committees spend a great deal of time and taxpayers’ money on sitting and travel allowances, yet they have yielded nothing substantial in terms of action.

In the matter of the Karen plot, just what is it that the Committee on Land is seeking to achieve that cannot be done through the courts of law, the Criminal Investigations Department, the National Land Commission and the EACC? Will its report lead to further action?

Indeed, it is becoming increasingly clear that parliamentary committees do not achieve much more than the tabling of reports in Parliament and the high-profile media attention they attract.

Once committees finalise their reports, they submit their findings to Parliament, which either adopts or rejects the reports. The Westgate report was rejected and Parliament took no further action despite the resources and time consumed by the committees in the name of investigating a crime of monumental magnitude that left more than 60 people dead and scores injured.

Institutions should be given the opportunity to do the work they were created to do. We have become a country where pseudo-organs with amorphous roles take up tasks that they have no capacity to accomplish. It is time the government reviewed its approach to the issue of investigating crime.

And that should include re-evaluating the relevance and place of parliamentary committee investigations such as the one on the Karen land saga.

Mr Musebe is a former editor-in-chief of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation. ([email protected])