MPs, Senators turf wars escalate

The National Assembly on Thursday passed a resolution that Auditor-General Edward Ouko undertakes a special audit into the money allegedly illegally incurred by the offices of majority and minority leadership in the Senate.

This comes as the bad blood between the two Houses escalated with the Senate threatening to seek legal redress on the 20 pieces of legislation that the National Assembly passed without the Senators input.

SENATE'S MANDATE

Attorney-General Kihara Kariuki is also entangled in the feud as the National Assembly wants him to provide an advisory opinion on the mandate of the Senate as well as the illegal expenditures incurred by the Senators on matters perceived to be the domain of the National Assembly.

The House’s resolution was through a motion sponsored by leader of majority Aden Duale (Garissa Township) and his minority colleague John Mbadi (Suba South) on Senate’s alleged duplication of roles and encroachment on the mandate of the National Assembly.

“We are writing to the Auditor-General and Attorney-General why PSC has created offices in the Senate outside the constitution that have continuously been funded by the taxpayer,” Mr Duale said as he accused the Senate of forming committees, to duplicate the work “of this House.”

“They have started the war and the war must go to the logical conclusion. If it is determined that they spent the monies illegally we shall fundraise for them to ensure they pay back the monies,” Mr Duale said in a veiled dig at the Senators.

Mr Duale’s argument is based on the fact that Article 108 of the constitution provides that the leader of the majority party shall be the person who is the leader in the National Assembly, of the largest party or coalition of parties and vice versa for the leader of the minority party.

LAW

He, however, wondered why the Senate went on to establish and cause the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) to facilitate and continues to facilitate the offices, which he says are unknown to the Constitution and any other laws of Kenya.

“We must now teach the baby how to walk and how to eat solid food. The baby cannot drink milk forever! We must teach the baby where to walk and we must teach the baby its boundaries,” Mr Duale said in a thinly veiled dig at the Senate.

Mr Mbadi noted that the Senators have no business dealing with the disputed legislation as they don’t concern counties.

He also noted that the issue of determining what bills concern counties is a matter between the two speakers and not a resolution of either House.

The constitution provides that the Senate will have no role considering bills that are either money bills in nature or those that do not concern counties.

“The issue of money bills should be the matter for the two speakers to determine and not the resolutions of the two Houses,” Mr Mbadi said.

COUNTIES

Mr Duale urged CSs, whose ministerial functions do not concern counties - Dr Fred Matiang’i (Interior), Raychelle Omamo (Defence) and Dr Monica Juma (Foreign Affairs), to ignore the Senate summons.

“These CSs have no business appearing before the Senate. They should ignore Senators. Anyone who appears before their committees risks a censure motion,” Mr Duale said.

The bad blood between the two Houses come at a time they are required to agree on the Division of Revenue Bill (DoRB) that flopped last month at a mediation level so that operations at the counties do not suffer.

The National Assembly passed the Sh3.02 trillion budget last month providing that Sh1.95 trillion remain at the national level while Sh310 billion to the counties.

However, Senators want Sh335 billion to the counties. The DoRB allocates revenue collected nationally between the two levels of government- national and county governments.