Ekwee Ethuro orders probe into police cordon around House

Senate Speaker Ekwee Ethuro has ordered investigations into heavy deployment of police to Parliament Buildings ahead of Wednesday’s special sitting.

Mr Ethuro directed the House National Security Committee to look into the matter and report back to the House.

“This is not a police state. This is a democracy,” he told the Floor in a ruling after requests to adjourn over the security issue.

“The instructions were very clear that we don’t need any police presence. Even today when I came in and I saw (police), I called the Cabinet secretary for Interior (Joseph Nkaissery).”

LIVE BROADCAST

The Speaker also ruled that the entire session would be broadcast live after the Parliament Broadcasting Unit signal was switched off last week when the National Assembly sitting degenerated into chaos.

His ruling followed protests and condemnation of the heavy police presence that saw some senators forced to abandon their cars and walk to the chamber.

The anti-riot officers, mainly GSU, barricaded Parliament Road and Harambee Avenue as more officers stood guard around the August House.

The Senators said the presence of the police was scaring them sick.

PUBLIC GALLERY

And both Majority Leader Kithure Kindiki and his Minority counterpart Moses Wetang'ula condemned the presence of the police on roads leading to Parliament Buildings, saying it eroded the independence of the Senate.

“Why is the gallery empty? Why is Parliament barricaded?” asked Mr Wetang’ula who claimed National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi had been escorted to Parliament by armed police.

“Is this part of Lang’ata Barracks or is this part of the Senate of the representatives of the people of Kenya. I beseech you Mr Speaker to suspend this sitting and demand that the executive withdraw this barricade. For what reason is it Mr Speaker?

Prof Kindiki, who represents Tharaka-Nithi County, supported this view, saying the Senate had had no security issues to warrant the heavy deployment.

NO DRIVERS

“We have never had incidents inside this House. Even when one or two senators veered off, they veered off elsewhere. Not here,” he argued.

“It is not right for anybody to ask policemen or women to come and camp here when senators are meeting because there is no incident. We have come here to persuade each other using logic.”

The Senator, who taught law at university before joining politics argued the Special Sitting had broken the senators’ holidays and some had even driven themselves from their homes because their drivers had taken vacation.

“You can’t ask someone who has driven himself to go and park in River Road. Allow me to condemn in strongest terms possible any attempt by the police who should be elsewhere…they should not come here to try and intimidate us…this has nothing to do with the government.”

VOTING

The senators are looking into amendments adopted by MPs last week.

The contentious amendments allow the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) to have an “alternative mechanism” for the identification of voters and transmission of election results, only when the deployed technology fails.

The Jubilee team argues that this will ensure that no voter is locked out of the ballot when the machine malfunctions, but Cord has called for street protests on January 4, saying that it was a scheme by Jubilee “to resurrect dead voters to vote.”

Another amendment, but which is not as emotive, is a move to defer the operationalization of the Election Campaign Financing Regulations to the 2022 elections.

CAMPAIGN FINANCE

The regulations, among other things, set campaign spending limits for candidates and require them to open campaign accounts, name managers by December 8, and file them with the commission.

If the Senate rejects the amendments, the law is returned to the National Assembly for reconsideration.

As in the National Assembly, Jubilee has a majority in Senateand only the 47 elected senators in a House of 67 are allowed to vote on Bills.

PEPPER SPRAY

But while the acrimony witnessed in the Lower House was absent in the Senate on Wednesday, opposition MP jumped on the security issue to delay the debate for an hour and a half, asking for the Speaker to remove the police first.

Elgeyo-Markwet Senator tried to say MPs behaviour in the recent past had warranted the police presence.

“It is easy for us politicians and parliamentarians to shift blame. We are one Parliament. The behaviour of one House affects the integrity of another House.”

“Look at the context, we were elected. We are called honourables but we carry pepper spray and whistles. It is us Mr Speaker that must condemn ourselves. We must, as we condemn the action visited upon us by the police, condemn our actions as parliamentarians.

But his Kisumu counterpart Anyang’ Nyong’o demanded the Mr Murkomen withdraw the accusation, arguing the Senate is a respected House that should not bear the brunt of National Assembly’s misbehaviour.

More to follow.